Rtexasf - It has actually been shown that some engines get better mpg on E20 - E25 blends than E0. If an engine is built to take advantage of the higher octane, it's possible to almost as much mpg on E85 as E0, due to extracting energy from the fuel more efficiently. It's just 87 octane [censored] E10 and E15 blends, and engines not tuned ideally for them that suffer large mpg hits. Otherwise, it's a pretty small difference.
I plan on trying a couple of tanks of E85 in the Jeep at some point to see what kind of mpg it gets (high timing advance, needs 91 octane minimum). I'm sure it will be worse, but I don't know how much worse. Never tried before, as I couldn't get E85 back home, but I can up here in Rochester.
I do agree that Ethanol needs to be made from better sources than corn, however.