Is New Thinking Required for Ethanol?

I've had a connection to ethanol for almost twenty years now, starting in the chemical industry when I was managing a solvent portfolio for a large national distributor. Even then I questioned the benefit to farmers. At that time we could not use corn based ethanol for chemical applications as the spec did not match the purity of petroleum based ethanol.

Although that may have changed - I still question whether ethanol is a good potential market for farmers, due to the fact that petroleum producers seem to be leading development. Do they have the motivation to find solutions for sustainable fuels and the environment when much of their business revolves around traditional petroleum production?

What do you think?