There are now strains of corn bred/engineered for ethanol production and not human consumption or even animal feed. Combined with the ban on GMO's in many markets, there's less ability to shift consumption from fuel to food or exports than you may think.
The 50¢/gallon blender's subsidy for ethanol has expired, but the oil industry is still mandated to use around 15 billion gallons of ethanol (from memory) in motor fuel this year. Since the USA burns less than 140 billion gallons of gasoline per year, a mere 10% fraction wouldn't meet the quota; that's why we now have E15. A small increase in vehicle efficiency would accomplish the same end at lower cost, but that wouldn't do anything for the farm lobby.
The poster who mentioned that it's an energy loser is right. A gallon of EtOH has about 78,000 BTU of energy, but it can take upwards of 30,000 BTU of natural gas to mash and distill. Then you have the inputs for fertilizer, other chemicals, and diesel fuel for cultivation and transport.
Gasohol is a farm price-support program, not an energy program.
