You're forgetting about one major issue with ethanol: the fact that you need to use gasoline to refine it in the first place. Ethanol really doesn't make that much of a difference in quality. If someone was planning to race their car, they'd notice. But to a common driver, the difference is barely noticeable. Eitherway, I think it's just an imaginary-quick fix. Sort of like sticking bubble gum on a leak.

Not to mention, because so many farmers are concentrating on growing corn, we're starting to see a shortage in other crops, especially wheat. The price of rice has gone up quite a bit. Of course, everything else has also risen due to inflation, but I've noticed, and heard of rice shortages and price increases, because of the focus on corn crops.

Haha, that made me lol.
Unfortunately, it is a sad truth. The government and oil companies have been closely knitted, so until we get a system of government that doesn't feel the need to make their pockets any deeper with oil money, we won't see much of a change. Unfortunately, I think a politician who isn't greedy is a bit of a paradox. It seems that only the scumbags really rise up to power lately, and those truly capable are destroyed by the media.

As for a war, I seriously doubt a war would pull us out of the recession. Sure, it might help to reunite the country for a few weeks like 9/11 did [I'm not making light of 9/11, I'm just remarking on the quick turn around this country's patriotism took afterwards] but that seems to be about it.

And, unfortunately, the common man is rather powerless to do anything about the conditions of this country. The Patriot Act has practically wiped out any hopes of a revolution, or at least a large-scale protest. All it takes is a little girl on MySpace saying she wants to kill the President, for the government's less scrupulous agencies to show up at their door.

I think for now, the best friend to those struggling in the changes of the economy, is whatever technology offers. Be it a basic bike, or a new electric car [The Chevy Volt is interesting], or even a public bus, people will just have to make adjustments.

I would absolutely love an effective gas protest, but that one isn't logical. People have been forming one-day gas strikes for a while now, but the gas companies just laugh at it. You know why? Because we are ABSOLUTELY DEPENDENT on fuel. This country can NOT function without gas. Millions would lose their jobs because public transportation in most of the country is laughable, and even public transportation needs gas. Not only that, but most people live too far from their work, to be able to bike or walk there.

The one-day gas strikes create a one-day loss of sales for the oil companies, but the next day, their sales skyrocket. They know just how dependent we are on gas, and know that a strike won't do anything about it. The only way those companies would feel any sort of impact, was if it were prolonged, for weeks, at least. And again, that just isn't possible in this nation.

This may sound horrible, but the most effective way to get a message across to the oil companies, would be to declare war on them. The old-school way of bombing organizations worked well in the past. It would really be the only way to damage the companies.

...Only problem with that, also, is we're stuck with our first, major problem: It doesn't solve our dependence problem on fuel.

From what I understand about the Alaskan Pipeline, is that it is very expensive to refine the oil, because we lack an efficient amount of oil refineries. Whether that is true or not, I'm not sure. I just remember hearing about it.

I remember hearing a little over a year ago about a massive oil reserve found in the Gulf of Mexico, that contained an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil. The amount that America has is around 29 billion barrels in their reserve. But, apparently, we can't touch that oil because Cuba has claim to it in an agreement that was made possible by Jimmy Carter.

And, want to hear another disgusting fact? Gas costs $0.12-$0.19 cents in Middle Eastern countries. Hearing that really makes me wonder if the War in Iraq was truly about gas, with such a disturbing difference in prices.

The bottom line about it all, is we NEED to find alternate ways of attaining power. Exxon Mobil, being the 'lovely' company that they are, bought out an engine that a man created, that could get 100 miles to a gallon of...get this...WATER.

Could you imagine running your car on water?