Thanks, David. Seems to me that the excuses don't outweigh the problems in dealing with the Middle East.

Here's an excerpt from the article that contains many of the negative as well as hopeful issues:

A survey by luxury automaker Lexus found that the biggest reason people said they'd consider a fuel-saving Lexus hybrid vehicle was that its improved mileage meant fewer stops at the filling station. Environmental benefits and reducing petroleum use were secondary. E85 vehicles could have a big marketing challenge against that kind of attitude.

• Your vehicle wouldn't make the most of the fuel. FFVs are able to burn E85 but are tuned for best performance on gasoline because it's abundant and E85 isn't. An engine would have to be designed from scratch to fully exploit E85's higher octane and overcome its inferior energy content.

"If you were using 100% E85, you could tune the engine and ... maybe get 2% more power," says Ken Kridner, the GM engineer who helped adapt GM V-6s to E85 capability. The Energy Department is more optimistic, suggesting gains of 3% to 5%.

Despite the barriers, the ethanol and auto industries are keen on E85's promise. "E85 is going to be a much more significant market for us down the road," RFA's Dinneen says. "But you have to get more vehicles on the road that can use E85, and you need more outlets."

"E85 holds great promise for fuel diversity, but we need to move from hundreds of fuel stations to thousands," says Curt Magleby, manager of public policy for Ford Motor. Ford and ethanol producer VeraSun are offering to help pay the $3,000 to $5,000 it would cost a fuel-station owner, in the simplest case, to convert a gasoline pump to one that dispenses E85. Even so, a station owner might have to fight his gasoline supplier.

Some major oil companies refuse to allow alternative-fuel pumps near the regular gasoline pumps, if they allow them at all. The oil companies don't have control over the quality and consistency of E85 so don't want it sold under the big service station canopies that carry the oil company brand names and logos, they say.

"Alternatives to gasoline can succeed," the California Energy Commission says in an analysis of ethanol and other non-petroleum fuels. "Unfortunately, a chicken-and-egg situation exists. Public acceptance and a healthy level of consumer demand are needed to make alternative-fuel vehicles viable, but a network of refueling facilities must also be in place. Oil companies are reluctant to build such facilities when vehicles themselves are not abundant. It is difficult to compete with tens of thousands of gasoline pumps and tens of millions of gasoline vehicles."