Alternatives:

Electricity - Make it at home from solar or wind, never buy transportation energy from someone else again. The most efficient alternative by far and can be carbon neutral.

Corn Ethanol - Very poor return on energy investment as a result of fossil fuels, fertlizers and energy required in distilllation. Sometimes uses more energy to make than you get back.

Cellulosic Ethanol - Much better than corn, easily energy positive, can use switchgrass or waste straw / wood chippings etc but still not a great energy yield per acre.

Rape-seed oil - Made into biodiesel makes 5% of diesel in France today, 100 gallons per acre per year. Yield per acre still too low to make a big impact on global supply.

Palm oil - For biodiesel, up to 400 gallons per acre per year, at $50 per barrel currently cheaper than crude oil, but only grows in tropics and very real danger forests will be cut down to produce it.

Algae oil - Up to 10,000 gallons of oil per acre per year, can grow at most latitudes on land not used for farming, cost competitive with fossil fuels, some companies making good progress.

http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/ecotech/ecot.htm