"George Z. Bush" wrote

...and if the stuff is made of surplus corn not otherwise needed to nourish
human beings,

Whoa now!

This isn't surplus corn. The corn is a contract to the government. The farmers
sell it to the buyer, and the buyer sells it to the distiller. The buyer and the
distiller are then subsidized by Congress. There is no Capitalism involved.

This may answer your other questions. The cost of manufacturing Ethanol is
wired-in to the taxes you pay to the Revenue Service. The Revenue Service
puts it in the general fund, and no accountant on Earth can decode it for at
least 10 years, in which case a completely different administration is in
power, and the previous ones are millionairs on retirement.

Bottom line, oil is in depletion until alternatives (Capitalist ones) reach the
break-even price, and then oil reserves (while still in depletion) will last for
centuries longer. Conservation is one-half of the equation, if you want to
play with that equation. Many of us want our Revenue spent on an
alternative engine, or an alternative fuel, and not get Ethanol and a God
Damned trip to Mars for no purpose.