Implications of Ethanol

In hopes of using ethanol as a fuel source one much acquire a way to either mass produce it synthetically or derive it from and existing source.

From a practical stand point the easiest way would be to take it from something that already exists in nature.  In America, corn is used for the "easy" source of ethanol.  Continuing research is done to try and maximize amount of ethanol that can be derived from corn.  In recent studies with corn and nitrogen fertilization it was concluded that increased amount of nitrogen fertilization did not increase the amount of corn the plant produced.  When faced with increased nitrogen the plant put more focus on creating cellulosic mass as opposed to carbohydrate mass, which makes up the corn fruit.
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es103252s