Hmm. So based on my personal research and opinions which I'm sure may not be the same as others....
1. Most Ethanol is not being made in the US. A significant amount is being snuck in under NAFTA through Mexico from Brazil where they are still decimating the rain forest to grow cane to make the fuel. Many of the US ethanol plant
2. The reason you can't buy 100% ethanol in most places is because by adding the gasoline content only oil company resources may transport it or sell it without lots of overhead for "hazmat" or carrier charges...
3. It takes 1.3 units of Crude oil in the current system to manufacture 1 unit of ethanol.
(This includes all the fertilizer and power being used in current bulk process ethanol refining.)
4. There is a surplus of crude oil right now in the market, and a shortage of refineries supply and demand is a son of a gun to fight... The first refinery in nearly 20 years is being built in North Dakota... To use the Canadian crude oil.
5. There is not a single battery technology in the market that does not actually use more energy to make than they save. This includes the high expensive and exotic processes to make the various lithium tech batteries then recycle them. They cost more to recycle than produce when you follow them to the end of their life, right now most go into landfills (In china who also manufactures all most all the hybrid vehicle batteries). Battery tech is still the limiter on a viable long term plug-in based auto technology, as much as I'd love to have one for my commute.
At the end of the day I think the key is simple economy and diversification of power sources. I'm not expecting 1 technology to replace standard internal combustion engines, rather a suite of solutions that each take a bite. For lower mile drivers a plug in solution would work now because they would get great life expectancy out of the battery packs (With good chargers not the lame ones in use in most systems now) simply because they don't wear out the batteries as fast deep discharging them.
On the other hand the higher mile driver, a LNG vehicle is way better because of the beating they give the cars.
For very small neighborhood or inner city vehicles the Hydrogen option is awesome for its lower pollution levels but higher cost to build and increased perceived handling issues.
(Hydrogen is actually WAY safer than natural gas.)
BTW on 100 octane unleaded race gas my Jeep Wrangler 4 cyl gets 22mpg, on E10 it gets 15, On E85 it gets 10 the computer is just too stupid to handle the AFR of alcohol, I've played a lot with it..l.
Race gas does not contain VOC limiters, it mostly does have 7 to 10 % alcohol as an oxygenation additive to replace the MTBE which is pretty much banned now. Without the VOC limiters it just vaporizes WAYYY better and burns better. Dump a 1/4 cup of Sunoco Race Gas on the ground and its gone in seconds pump gas almost doesn't evaporate.
In Oregon in rural areas we can by non alcohol fuel for "farm" use.
When I use it I immediately get 40 more miles on a 18 gallon tank of fuel its not a small hard to measure thing. (I have some test strips that I got from a local chem supplier to detect alcohol to double check.)
Oh well just thinking out loud.
Dave