Other Problems
Destroying forests is as damaging as many other options. we need different solutions. Ethanol is not the answer anyway, the fuel value is too low, speaking as an engineer. Of course, methanol is even worse.
maybe if Kudzu could be converted into a liquid methanol polymer? We have rather a lot of that, and we want to get rid of it.
Though, I think that the real future solution will be electric rail, and electric cars, powered through the highways. All supplied by Nuclear. Fission for the near term, and fusion for the long term. Nothing else can provide the power quantities we need, without destroying large parts of the environment. Except for maybe orbital solar, but that's even more far out than fusion is right now.
Environmental scientists are starting to wake up to the serious environmental consequences of both Ground Based Solar and Wind. Those will be limited to niche sources in the future, longer than 15 years out.
