This is the fallacy behind EROEI which is a near religion at TOD.

It's a "near religion" because it is the crux of the biscuit. If I spend $200 to get to my job where I earn $200 per day, I have nothing at the end of the day. Ethanol is not much better than this scenario.

Robert posted an excellent look at the "solar" gain of ethanol here http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2812#more.

Trying to stop those who are attempting to mitigate peal oil because their method doesn't suit the EROEI religion is a dead end.

It's not that the method doesn't suit a "religion", it's that it Just. Doesn't. Work. in any meaningful way for mitigation of oil. There have been countless computations on what the potential mitigation is, and has been shown countless times that it is a drop in the bucket. I'd love to see anything that shows otherwise.

If I spend $200 to get to my job where I earn $200 per day, I have nothing at the end of the day.

Ahhh, but the Tax man made something.