EclectEcon

From the back pages of The Economist, where they publish weekly data and interesting little tidbits:

In America it is cheaper to make fuel ethanol from maize because of the high domestic price of sugar. The Agriculture Department forecasts that America will use 34% more maize in ethanol production next season, some 20% of the harvest. Prices, up by a fifth this year, look set to rise further.

And of course the reason for the "high domestic price of sugar" in the US is?
Protection of the US sugar industry.

Add to that the huge incentive US corn farmers have to support protection of the US sugar industry (plus a ban on the import of Brazilian ethanol), and it is easy to see why the international trade talks are stalled because of various agriculture policies. From Slate's Today's Papers:

The New York Times leads with the collapse of the five-year-old world trade talks. Known as the Doha round because that's the city they started in, the negotiations broke down over agriculture policies: The U.S. has been pushing for the E.U. and others to end their agriculture tariffs, with others responding that the U.S. first needs to cut back its farm subsidies--and that is a no-go.

For more on the inefficiencies of US policies regarding ethanol see here and here.