"It talks about a negative energy balance for corn where it takes 1.3 times the energy to produce a gallon of ethanol as you get out of it."

These statements really gripe my butt.  Most of the time they are including all fuel used to raise the crop.  I guess they figure if it weren't for ethonal the tractor would be parked and the ground left to go to grass.  The other figure they like to include is all energy used to supply materials and build the facility.  This may actually be a double dip depending on other figures used.

All numbers in these reports usually wind up being more subjective than objective.  Many times when asked to verify how they arrived at the numbers there is a lot of hand waving and calculation gyration gauranteed to give a math scholar a headache.

Ethanol is a good form of renewable energy.  The only problem I see creeping up is the saturation of areas with too many plants.  Some investors are going to taken for a ride and the scenery won't be pretty.