Ethanol, touted as an alternative fuel of the future, may eat up far more energy during its creation than it winds up giving back, according to research by a UC Berkeley scientist that raises questions about the nation's move toward its widespread use. Story is here. Predictably, ethanol proponents have come out against the research and the researcher. This controversy has been brewing for years, but typically has been relegated to debates amongst the cognoscenti and seldom has seen the light of public discourse. There are actually a few lessons here. One is that there is wide variety among the physical facilities that produce ethanol, just as there are among all other energy facility types--some good and some not so good. Public policy should recognize that there are good performers within a type (in this case ethanol production) that should be treated separate from bad performers. Similarly, the baseline fossil fuel technologies that alternatives are invariably compared against are technologically advancing too—much cleaner and much more efficient than just a few years ago.