I've about half a dozen of these studies and they are all over the map. Government studies show a positive yield and a few independent studies show a net loss of energy.
Farm lobbyists and ethanol producers have an incentive to lie about this for obvious reasons. Politicians have an incentive to lie because they just love all that power (will we have an "ethanol czar"?) Even oil companies profit from an fuel source that uses more oil than fuel produced.
Does the taxpayer even have a chance?
Thanks for the additional info. I merely was mentioning that I had heard of one study that said corn-to-ethanol generated a net energy loss. I wasn’t aware of other such studies, their sources, the self-interest of the parties generating them or what the consensus of such studies might indicate.
My inclination is to conclude that anything government mandated has to make the problem worse.