I'm not sure of the unit of measurement that they used in a report I read, but the biggest problem with ethanol a year ago was that it took more than one unit of energy to produce one unit of energy of ethanol. That may be resolved by now, I'm not sure.
As far as inflation, the main issue right now is that the value of the dollar keeps dropping against other world currencies. I believe that is beginning to taper off lately. Related specifically to gas, increases can be significantly, attributed to speculators (kind of a middle man) who bet that we'll keep drivng even as gas prices increase. So far, they've been right and are making a ton of money.
Guess who has made the most off of the increase of gas. Our wonderful federal government. When asked if they are willing to give back some of what they are making, they just turn the conversation towards the oil companies.
Ole Barack has stated that he is ok with the price of gas and if it goes up, he just wish it would go up slower so it wouldn't be such a shock to people.

I could go on for hours about this. I'll leave with this... DRILL NOW.