Isn't there some kind of new alternative called Ethanol? It's supposed to be included in the Energy Policy Act of 1992 along with biodiesel, electricity, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane.
there are major problems with ethanol and biodiesel (as with all "alternative fuels".
Ethanol and biodiesel are created from plant material, which means that large areas of land need to be set aside for growing those plants.
That means either reducing the agricultural land and turning it to growing plants for fuel (resulting in less food, thus famine) or turning pristine nature into farmland.
Both are currently happening (though the famine is at the moment prevented by increasing agricultural land by chopping down forests and increasing its output by more artificial fertiliser).
But that's only part of the problem. A study a few years ago discovered that it took more than a gallon of gasoline to produce and ship to the pump a gallon of ethanol or biodiesel. In other words, the system is at the moment counterproductive, nothing but a feelgood measure.
This is due to the vehicles and systems used to run the factories and farms (and the fueltrucks) all running on gas themselves, and those facilities usually being far from the places where the product is consumed due to the high cost of land near cities and the large amounts of land required for the production of "biofuels".
So instead of a 10 acre refinery on the outskirts of town you have a 500 acre production facility a hundred miles away that produces a tenth or so of the fuel.
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