Hillary's announcement of her support for E85 ethanol from cor n IS a big business subsidy and scam, no doubt. Other posters have covered this better than I.
But biodiesel has strong possibilities as an alternative transportation fuel, and has roots in the 70s oil crises. There is strong supporting research from NREL (National Renewable Energy Labs). But since it's not produced from heavily subsidized corn, no one flies its banner.
Other posters cover the Hillary Clinton issue better. She wants to be President, and Iowa has corn. But check out this post at the oildrum.com. If you didn't already know, corn ethanol is barely a net energy gain. It takes LOTS of fossil fuels to grow, harvest and cook the corn. Might as well burn the natural gas used to cook it.
http://www.theoildrum.com/
Biodiesel however, does have possibilities. But NOT with oil crops. Corn, soybeans, etc. just don't produce anywhere near enough oil to make a difference. Sorry, Willy Nelson...
An ACRE of soybeans (the feedstock for almost all commercial biodiesel) can produce about 150 gallons of oil a year. Corn, less than 100 gallons. Canola plants, 240 or more. But if lipids are all you need, nothing grows faster, or easier than algae. Potentially, you could produce upwards of 1,000 gallons per acre per year.
This paper was written about three years ago, at the University of New Hampshire (UNH), and tells you a lot about the possibilities of algae-based biodiesel. Briggs, the author, claims it is even possible to produce enough biodiesl from algae to meet ALL of the US transportation requirements. A stretch, but at least he's done the back of the napkin calculations for us. Check it out.
http://www.unh.edu/...
Where did the original biodiesel from algae idea come from? Why, the U.S. National Renewable Energy Labs Aquatic Species Program. Closed by Bill Clinton in 1997, as part of the budget cutting process. They did produce a lot of meaningful work, and ultimately said producing algae biodiesel would "only be competitive if petroleum diesel cost more than $2.oo a gallon." Are we there yet?
You can read the original papers here.
http://www.nrel.gov/...
And what is the current state of algae-based biodiesel? Well, UNH's Briggs is one of the forum moderators at the http://forums.biodieselnow.com/ site. Briggs claims a viable system will be available in two years. But, he's said essentially that for ... two years. Still needs more money for research, and building a pilot plant.
Check out the 'Forums,' and see what amazing research and ideas are being discussed. Look at the 'advanced production methods' forums, read the 'algae basics' piece. Spend hours reading, and wonder.... why aren't people just THROWING money at these guys?
No Biodiesel Presidential Primary, I guess.
Just don't get me started on butanol.
