As it takes from 0.7 to 1.3 gallons of oil, counting all the fuel to collect and transport the stuff, as well as the energy for the fertilizer and to spread the same, to get only 1.0 gallons out.
That makes it almost as expensive to make or more to make than the energy costs to do.
There are a few things that are cheaper than that, such as using the corn stalks themself after the corn harvest, and not the corn.
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96% of the fossil fuel equivalant is natural gas or coal, not oil.
Most Ethanol is used in a E10 blend as an oxygenator and octane booster for gasoline. If we did not use Ethanol we would be using MTBE which is made from petroluem and pollutes the environment.
When are we going to move more to Diesel cars?
Volkswagen makes a turbo diesel today that gets 70 or so MPG. They don't sell it here probably because it can't go on the freeways very well.
But still the research that's being done with ceramics and brakes now, and could lead to a ceramic cylinder and piston diesel that probably get 200 MPG and be great if it were to generate power for a stack of batteries.