[JamesP81]

Actually it is a net gain and the gain is growing all the time.

And until you can get as much energy from from ethanol as gasoline with same input effort to produce it, then we're wasting resources that could be used to drill more oil or research alternatives that actually have a chance of replacing crude oil products as a primary energy source for transportation.

[P-40]

The finished liquid fuel energy yield for fossil fuel dedicated to the production of ethanol is 1.34 but only 0.74 for gasoline.