Vilack understands that he is the Governor of Iowa and that he is in the thrall of the ethanol industry.

Unfortunately, the decision to produce so much corn in this country is primarily a product of corn subidies. Remove those and the industry collapses because most corn farmers would frankly admit that it is all about the subsidy.

But the local CSA growing organic vegetables gets no guarantees, no subsidies, and no help.

Provide a free market for ethanol and the discussions you hate so much about EROEI would largely disappear. In the absence of a free market, however, we are forced to use some methology to provide a comparison between ethanol and gasoline, for example.

At the end of the day, if there are external factors such as renewability that trump a disadvantageous EROEI comparison, then fine. However, it remains the case that there are inputs into the ethanol production process which are clearly not renewable. You chose renewability as a factor that needs to be considered but ignored other issues such as soil fertility, degradation, impacts on the food supply, and the ability of the available land to sustainability produce enough fuel to power our vehicles.

When it comes to comparing an EV vs an ICE, rest assured that EROEI will and has been used to compare to the two modes of propelling a vehicle.

Anyway, I am sure everyone here knew that you would immediately cut and paste your usual rant against EROEI. The energy return on your rant is zero, if not negative. You are just undermining your cause by posting such nonsense.

Personally, I do not come down firmly either pro or con vis a vis ethanol because of the complexities involved. But, rest assured, your posts do nothing to convince me or anyone else that subsidizing ethanol is a good idea.