By host Tom Ashbrook:

If you live within a country mile of a corn field, you’ve already heard the roar over ethanol. Across the Midwest and well beyond, a great corn-fed ethanol gold rush is on.

Farmers and towns and states are betting big on an ethanol boom as oil prices soar on the Middle East instability. Investment bankers, venture capitalists, Bill Gates and old-fashioned oil companies are pouring big money into new plants and technology. Congress is fueling the whole parade with huge subsidies and tax incentives.

You can now drive from Chicago to Kansas City with high-test ethanol pumps along the whole corridor. But will all this hot new moonshine fuel the country?

Hear about the new ethanol boom and where it’s taking homegrown American energy.

Guests:

Alexei Barrionuevo, National Business Correspondent for The New York Times

Charles Van Voorst, Town Council President in Reynolds, Indiana

John Miranowski, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University

Becky Skillman, Lieutenant Govenor of Indiana

Nathaneal Greene, Senior Policy Analyst at Natural Resources Defense Council.