Run, don’t walk, to back40’s house at CrumbTrail to read this post and the article to which he links on the dubious reasons for claiming that biofuels are renewable.
It has bothered me for a long time that no one has really quantified the entire supply chain in modern biofuels, including all of the attendant energy flows in producing fertilizer, transportation (which for things like ethanol is substantial because ethanol is the fragile flower of the fuel world), and so on. This article and post at least point us in that direction, although much, much more analysis is required.
Yeah, chances are ethanol is being made from corn that is artificially cheaper due to subsidies.
I also think the total cost of oil should include an accurate accounting of all that we spend on defense simply to protect the foreign supply chain.