Right now, 98 percent of the ethanol produced in the U.S. is made from corn. But in order to meet the 2005 federal mandate of 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol a year by 2012… and then President Bush’s lofty goal of a 20 percent reduction in gasoline usage by 2017… and possibly now the U.S. Senate’s latest proposal of 36 billion gallons of biofuels by 2022 (with 21 billion gallons coming from something other than corn), it’s obvious there will have to be something other than corn fueling the green fuel. That’s where government incentives come in.
This article in Missouri Ruralist says state and federal subsidies that helped jumpstart much of the current growth will be instrumental in finding an even better source than corn to make ethanol:
While Congress is backing its standards with increased funding for renewable fuels research and development, the administration is taking steps as well. The Department of Energy announced this summer that it will spend $375 million in Tennessee, Wisconsin and California to develop non-food crops into biofuels. The department is already investing another $385 million in six alternative-feedstock ethanol plants in California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa and Kansas.
The article goes on to point out that government incentives helped ethanol double its output since 2003. It seems to reason that those same kind of incentives will spur the next feedstock’s growth.
No, it’s not cheap biodiesel… although it certainly could end up being biodiesel for just peanuts. What I’m talking about is scientists at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service looking at using peanuts as the feedstock for biodiesel… maybe even cheaper than soybeans.
Florida stands ready to fill up and feel good as it endeavors to become a leader in both the production and consumption of biofuels, including ethanol. 
According to the 
Recent rain in the Midwest has helped the corn crop rebound and led to lower corn prices, according to a 
The American Wind Energy Association is calling on Congress to enact a Renewable Electricity Standard (RES). Leaders from the AWEA will join with Congressmen Tom Udall (D-NM) and Mark Udall (D-CO) on Tuesday, July 31st at 10 a.m. at the U.S. Capitol to call for wider support of the amendment that would require power companies to use 20 percent renewable sources to produce energy by the year 2020. Pennsylvania Congressman Todd Platts (R. PA) is also a co-sponsor of the measure.
At the recent Farm to Fuel Summit in Florida, the state’s chief financial officer told the crowd that biofuels have made it into the mainstream. 
CFO Alex Sink related a story of how she had gone into her local Circle K convenience store that morning for coffee and newspapers on the way to the conference and the clerk at the counter noticed her “Farm to Fuel” shirt and asked her what she did. “I said I’m getting ready to go to a conference to talk about ways to grow crops to turn into fuel,” Sink said. “And she said, ‘You mean like ethanol?’ and I said ‘yeah’ and she said ‘that’s good, that’s very good, we need to protect our ozone layer.'”
The nation’s largest dry mill ethanol producer was recently honored by U.S. troops serving in Iraq. 
During the presentation at POET headquarters in Sioux Falls, SD, Major Chontos noted that the US Air Force is the highest fuel consumer of all the military branches. During a training weekend at the South Dakota Air National Guard, 10 F-16s typically fly two missions a day for two days consuming 60,000 gallons of fuel. One mission uses 1,500 gallons of fuel. At Camp Sather, 10,000 gallons of fuel are used per day for air conditioning and other electrical generation to support 1,000 airmen.