Ethanol will fail this year to fulfill promises made on its behalf about lowering US dependence on imported oil. It won’t be the first time—or the last.The failure will result from the energy required to grow and process corn and to transport corn to ethanol plants and ethanol to blending facilities.Ethanol’s supporters argue that modern processing technology endows their favorite fuel additive with a positive energy balance, that energy content of ethanol exceeds energy consumed in its manufacture. They’re right.But their optimistic assessments of ethanol’s energy balance underestimate the energy used outside processing plants for essentials like its transpor...