In a country where corn-based ethanol incites an avalanche of controversy, you may be surprised to know that ethanol isn’t the most common alternative fuel in America. Well, not by the EIA’s accounting method, anyway.

The 134 billion gallons of gasoline that powered our vehicles last year included about 13 billion gallons of ethanol. But the Energy Information Administration doesn’t consider one drop of blended ethanol as a true alternative fuel.