When ethanol was first being produced it took 29% more energy to make ethanol than the actual output produced. Now however, new technology has enabled ethanol production to create 34% more energy than it takes to produce it, so they are making progress.
The only reason that ethanol E85 is cheaper is cause there is a .54$ subsidy. Corn is not very efficient as a source for ethanol I recently took a energy/transportation class at college and these were the comparisons of other crops to corn, very interesting actually.
corn: 250 gal/acre
beet: 100 gal/acre
cane: 1200 gal/acre
manioc: 1500 gal/acre
jerusalem artichokes: 1500 g/a
cattails: 2500 g/a
Something to think about, or atleast some useless info.