I'm not sure.  A couple of theories:  refining capacity is limited because of environmental barriers to new refinery construction;  second, in the absence of government subsidies I think ethanol is uneconomic (and with continued low crude prices and an antisubsidy mentality in Washington, it's unlikely to get better soon).
 
In other news:  Melissa's mom called last night.  Francis is dying.  He was slowly going with congestive heart failure and now has renal cancer which has spread to his liver.  He has had a great life and is well into his nineties.  He is mostly sleeping now and Norma will be getting a hospice nurse today.  Norma seems fine (this has been coming for a while), but of course no one is ever ready.  He has stayed himself to the end:  when Norma was helping him get back in bed after he had fallen, he told her:  "I don't think we"ll be having sex today."

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Kean [mailto:rkean@starband.net]
Sent: Tuesday, October 09, 2001 10:20 PM
To: Steve & Melissa Kean; Steve & Melissa Kean
Subject: Ethanol


Steve,
 
What is the big obstacle to large-scale ethanol production?  The cost of the refineries?  It seems that it would be a natural to make us less dependent on foreign oil.
 
Rob