Five year study gave very promising results. Five times more energy obtained than was used to grow switchgrass to convert to ethanol. This includes the nitrogen-based fertilizers and farming equipment needs used to cultivate it.
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=grass-makes-better-ethanol-than-corn
Heck, I cut my grass once or twice a week every spring, summer, and fall. Very interesting potential You only need to plant it once.
Hi Resin, yes there are so many better crops for ethanol then corn. Another example is cattails. When these are planted in refuse pools, not only to they clean up the waste, they grow three times as big! This is the mother of all starch crops to use for ethanol, beside sugar crops. They can be planted on road sides and they will even cleanup the crap from vehicles that wash of the roadways.