Is corn-based ethanol preferable than gasoline?

Both the reading and the lecture discuss whether usage of corn ethanol is benificial than fossil fuel. The reading passage argues that using corn ethanol instead of fossil fuel gas for running cars is more advantageous for three reasons. But the lecture disagrees. He believes that the benefits the author mentioned are misleading and and challenges each of these reasons. First, the article points out that corn ethanol uses less energy than gasoline and hence a better mileage can be achieved with low cost. However, the professor rebuts the argument. He states that even though corn ethanol has low energy when compared to gasoline, it is not cheap to produce corn ethanol. He also mentions that to create and distribute the corn it takes lot of money and that makes it more expensive than gasoline. Secondly, the author contends that the American economy can be less reliant on the energy sources from other countries and use the money saved for helping the local corn farmers. But, the speaker argues against it. She says that there would not be any money benefit from not using gasoline. she adds that the price of corn would dramatically increase which decreases the accessibility for farmers in other industries like beef and diary. As a result, the economy would be hurt. Finally, the writer believes that corn fuel is more environmentally friendlier than the gasoline. However, the lecturer from the listening passage attacks this belief. She points out that increase in corn demand would result in increase in farmlands. As a result, expansion of farms would produce more carbon di oxide into the environment, which in turn would destroy the ozone layer and result in global warming. As you can see, the author and lecturer hold very different views on usage of corn ethanol to gasoline.