Ethanol from almost anything?

AROUND THE TIME THAT THE BOTTOM DROPPED OUT of the world economy, GM invested in a start-up by name of Coskata, which has developed a proprietary process to produce alcohol from just about anything.

Pundits were not impressed. Well, it seems that Coskata is the real deal. They've just opened a medium-size installation, and are fixing plans for a humongous one somewhere in the US south-east.

Why should you care? Well, for starters, the Coskata process is energy-positive:

Argonne National Lab has found that with certain feedstocks, the Coskata process can "reach a net energy balance of 7.7" (meaning, the ethanol produced contains 7.7 times as much energy as it took to make the fuel). 

AUTOBLOG has an in-depth article by Sebastian Blanco, that will provide a lot more detail, and is worth the read. This could be the Tar Sands' worst nightmare. Besides, turbos love E-85 . . .