The tech bubble, the real estate bubble, will an ethanol bubble be next? Probably... ethanol is not the best alternative to gasoline as it is not very energy dense. Gasoline has 87.2% of the energy density of diesel and ethanol has only 56.2% the energy density of diesel. Biodiesel is more energy dense than gasoline at 89.8% of diesel (these figures come from U.S. Department of Energy's 'Fuels of the Future for Cars and Trucks')
BusinessWeek recently had a series of aticles about ethanol. Ethanol: A Tragedy in 3 Acts talks about how vehicles get significantly lower miles per gallon when using E85 and how ethanol can result in more summertime smog.
If I were invested in ethanol right now I'd take my money and run to biodiesel.
