There are many good reasons to doubt the future of corn ethanol.   (Not necessarily ethanol, but corn ethanol.)

This Washington Post article puts it in perspective.

But because of how corn ethanol currently is made, only about 20 percent of each gallon is "new" energy. That is because it takes a lot of "old" fossil energy to make it: diesel to run tractors, natural gas to make fertilizer and, of course, fuel to run the refineries that convert corn to ethanol.

If every one of the 70 million acres on which corn was grown in 2006 was used for ethanol, the amount produced would displace only 12 percent of the U.S. gasoline market. Moreover, the "new" (non-fossil) energy gained would be very small -- just 2.4 percent of the market. Car tune-ups and proper tire air pressure would save more energy.

Treehugger reports in a separate report (here) that as many as 40 Corn Ethanol plants might file for bankruptcy in 2009. And that report was when gas was still expensive. If fuel stays <$2 a gallon, it could be far more than that.

Part of me wants to think, well, good riddance.  I'm not a fan of Corn ethanol.  But failures like these will surely be lumped into the general "CleanTech" or Alternative Fuels categories, and it might make finding funding for other projects more difficult.