Regarding the more tangible ideas presented I suggest that we all run an
experiment with our cars comparing Ethanol Gas with Non Ethanol Gas. As I
have indicated in my Apr 24, 2006 at 02:48 PM post under the title “MPG
difference with different gas?“  I, personally, have seen strong
indication of large fluctuations in gas mileage between two different
brands/gas stations that I have been monitoring lately here in Milpitas,
CA. The difference is not small. So far I have filled up a total of 6
tanks of gas (3 from each station) using my 3 different cars and noticed a
15-17%!! difference in the ethanol gas compared to the non-ethanol gas. The
magnitude of the difference surprised me.

I engaged in this experiment because I had been routinely fueling up at my
local 76 gas station for the past year or so, checking gas mileage once in
a while out of curiosity and as an indication of general engine health.
Then, in the last few months, I noticed that gas mileage on my ’98 Nissan
Frontier had dropped significantly and I started wondering if my engine
was getting out of tune. So I tried filling up at another gas station, my
local Shell station and voila! The MPG went back up to the 24.5MPG that I
remember when the truck was new. I repeated the experiment with my other
two cars, an ’88 Nissan 323 and a ’89 Honda CRX and I also noticed similar
MPG differences (15-17%).

I cannot claim to know at this point whether this is due to the ethanol or
other additives. I do know that the caloric content of ethanol is much
lower than gas so some decrease in gas mileage should be expected. Also I
do not know whether the caloric content of ethanol is converted to
mechanical energy with the same efficiency. And sure, other factors could
be at play such as driving conditions, ambient temperature, accuracy of
pump measurement etc. So I would like to encourage you to run similar
experiments as I continue my experiment so that we can collect a large
statistical sample and remove the random errors.  

I also suggest that somebody posts some ideas on how to remove other
variables from this experiment so that MPG differences can be attributed
to gasoline only. E.g. Do not compare city driving with Highway driving,
short driving with long driving etc.
In my case, with my truck, I do mostly highway driving and I noticed that
the MPG using gas from any one particular gas station is surprisingly
consistent (no more than 2-3% variation). I cannot explain the 15-17%
difference that I have recently observed between these the two gas
stations I mentioned above.

When it comes to the less tangible ideas presented, I have to confess,
that I live in the US but I am originally from Europe and still spend a
lot of time in Europe. In Europe where there is a lot more regulation by
our “benevolent” governments we pay around $6 per gallon in most European
states. The true cost of gas in Europe is more or less the same as for
every other country, that is, somewhere between $2.00 and $2.50 per gallon
which covers paying for the international price of crude, refinement costs
and various transportation costs. The rest of the price up to the $6 level
is, you guessed it, taxes that our benevolent European governments levy on
us using the power that we relinquished to them a long time ago. My
general advice to you Americans is, whatever you do, do not follow
Europe’s example. If you do, you will also deprive us Europeans of the
still rather individualistic America you have now which is the only
remaining reminder to us and the rest of the world of what our countries
could have been had we not relinquished our power as individuals to the
collectivism of the state. As to how America got to be this fortunate,
it’s another story but, from what I see, America’s individualistic
fortitude will be temporary and short lived if you do not safeguard it.
After all, wouldn’t you agree that it would be difficult for America to
avoid the fate of almost every other country in the world? So be very
weary of relinquishing power to the collective thinking of the state, it
is a one way path, a trap that almost every other country in the world has
fallen into and cannot get out of. It happens gradually as it happened for
us Europeans. For many of us Europeans America is left as the only
reminder of what our countries could have been.

simple math.  ethanol has about half the calorific content of gasoline.
 factor that by the content ratio and you have your mileage decrease.

You could Google it, you know.  The first thing that shows up is:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/question707.htm

which is actually a pretty reasonable analysis.

Regarding the water use, no it doesn't disappear, but you're taking
water that could be drunk, used to grow food, wash your car, take a
bath, etc., and are turning it into water vapor.  Sure it'll rain
somewhere.  Don't you know how much water California is already
"stealing" from Utah, they're really pissed about the current
allocation.  Potable water is a valuable resource and you'll understand
that when the supply of that tightens up too.

Meanwhile, let's all have more kids and encourage more immigration,
legal or otherwise.

while i agree that it's not relevant, water is "lost" in ethanol
production as it is consumed in production of the ethanol molecule.
it's "released" again on combustion.

The problem with that theory is that subsidies don't produce energy
directly.  Brazilian oil imports are going down while energy use is
going up.  The energy has to be coming from somewhere.  Throwing money
at ethanol production wouldn't reduce fuel imports unless there was a
net gain in BTUs.

That is why we Europeans put strict controls on our big bad oil companies
and in some cases even completely nationalized our oil industries we are
trying to partially undo this now). We put our national governments in
control so that the oil industry serves the interest of the people rather
than the interest of a few millionaires. Result: we pay $6 per gallon for
gas.