sugar-based ethanol fueled vehicles. just watched a special on fuels on the history channel. most of the vehicles (or recently produced) in brazil are flex-fuel vehicles. they have engines that run on gas, ethanol or a mixture of both. brazilian gas stations, by law, are required to have ethanol as an option. it is cheaper (half the cost of regular gas) and less polluting ("carbon neutral" according to scientists, ).

brazil currently produces 35% of the worlds ethanol, the US produces less than half that. the US government requires the US to be able to produce twice our current ethanol production by the year 2112. meanwhile, brazil has had this technology since the 80s, thus making them less and less dependent on foreign oil and fossil fuels.

seems like a great solution to our current and future problems. why are we not looking at/using ethanol as an alternative fuel source? what are the pros and cons to ethanol?