The Downside Of The Clean Air Alternative

There's a rather depressing piece at TCS Daily today, by Tim Carney, all about the environmental cost of ethanol, the "clean air" alternative/additive to gasoline. It seems that while ethanol does reduce carbon monoxide emissions, there are a myriad of other environmental costs to factor into the equation. Figures, doesn't it? Why does there always have to be a trade-off? On the bright side, there are still plenty of other energy options in the works that we can pin our hopes on. (Getting power off the blacktop is looking quite appealing at the moment.) Even with the added environmental complications of ethanol, it's doubtless something we want to keep in our bag of tricks--it's probably still a better alternative than relying exclusively on gasoline, which pollutes and puts money in the pockets of despotic regimes. Wouldn't it be nice if some perfect energy solution just marched off the drawing board somewhere and rewrote the menu of energy choices completely, making the right decisions obvious and easy, with no dish of guilt on the side? I know, I know--wishful thinking, but a girl can dream, can't she? Until that unlikely event occurs, we'll just have to do the best we can to choose well. It's hard being grownups and having to decide what's best. So many moral conundrums, so little wisdom...