About 20 years ago, Native American Indians had some desert plant that would grow about anywhere with little effort. Something special about how they easily and how much oil came out of it.  Might be worth a search, but not much to go on.

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel.html

Grow your own

Rapeseed (Brassica Napus), or canola, produces about 2,000 pounds of seed per acre, yielding about 100 gallons of vegetable oil for fuel, and 1,200 pounds of high-protein meal (seedcake) that can be used for livestock feed or as an organic fertilizer.

The seedcake could also be used to make ethanol, and so could the several tons of crop wastes.

Yields from soybeans are about 60 gallons per acre, from coconuts more than 200 gallons per acre, and from oil palms more than 500 gallons per acre. (See Vegetable oil yields.)

For small-timers, one bushel of soybeans produces about 1.5 gallons of biodiesel -- that's about six to one by volume, and three to one for canola (rapeseed).

   I can't help noticing the failure to mention the potential
of hemp seed oil for the production of low cost fuel.  One of the
problems with conventional grains is the high cost of production.
   ie: high fuel input, fertilizer costs, pesticides, and herbicides etc.
       plus the use of high quality land that is normally used for food crops.

  Around this area the original Ukranian pioneers brought hemp seeds with them
  from the old country, and produced a high quality cooking and salad oil with
  some kind of small press.  Some old people were still doing this a few years
  ago.

  It seems that hemp is extremely drought resistant and grows well on low quality
  soil. Also it is highly resistant to competative weeds and insects.

   It produces the highest quality fiber in the world which could also be turned into
    ethanol.

  Anyway , It seems like industrial hemp(no dope) would be a natural choice but I
  think it ran into problems with the lumber lobby, (cheap fiber); chemical industry
lobby,(high resistance) and of course the paranoia.

   Even though I live in the Saudi Arabia of North America (Alberta) it still hurts to pull up to the pumps.

I had studied this problem a few years ago. I concluded 5 acres of corn could produce enough fuel for 12,000 miles. Fuel economy is better today so maybe less.

Average acre produces 100 bushels of corn. Cost is $2.xx. Lets call it $2.50.
5 * 100 * 2.5 = $1250.

The corn must be fermented into Alcohol for the fuel. Not sure about the oil...
The fermenting and distillation will have a cost, so lets say 50%, which I expect to be on the high side. 1250 * 1.5 = $1875 including the transportation charge.
A profit must be made so 2x, (typical profit) now at $3750.

3750/600 = $6.25 will be the max possible price of gas.

The fermenting and distillation is a simple process and not costly to build. You can make a system in your back yard:-) The distillation needs heat, the corn stalks can be used. Return the ash to the fields.
Not included in the calculations is the mash left over, it's worth more than the corn as feed. Not sure of the ratio of dried mash to bushels of core. But is must be at least 2:1.
I conclude when the price gets near $4, the alcohol will become a real possibility.
Our modern vehicles can run on pure alcohol without modification.
You may not know it, but gas today has 10-20% alcohol already.

Small place, he said I can proably get 20-40 gals a week maybe just from his place.

Money got tight all at once and I still have to get some barrels, but I will be getting it when I can.

There is probably enough fast food oil dumped each week to get half the employees back and forth to work for free! Probably all of them! Think of the feul savings in that alone! How many people actaully work in all those fast food joints, and every corner has 2 plus all those in the middle of the block!

Run that used oil as feul and that's so much that does not have to be grown for just feul use. Press those fries before you eat them and you can drive a mile yourself :)

Chances are once you press the oil out of corn, you can still make something to drink and be happy, and then feed the cows or hogs still too, if your able to walk that far :)

Hogs and cows make more fertalizer to grow more corn with.
.
nothing to lose

Oil crops on the other hand, generally yield 3-5 gallons of fuel out per gallon of input.  Using waste veggie oil converted to biodiesel, it can go as high as 7 or 8 gallons out per gallon invested.

This has been studied a lot.  Do a google search on the phrase:

Energy
Returned
On
Energy
Invested

Or EROEI for short.

So don't plan on saving the world growing your own ethanol, unfortunately.  I wish it were that easy.  As a junior and senior in high school, I was doing research on distillation techniques that would be appropriate for agriculture back when we were going broke raising cattle and hogs and growing corn in the late 70's.  It was quite a shock to realize that it's essentially a losing proposition.

Good luck and have fun.

For veggie oils the hottest thing
today seems to be Jatropha, which
grows almost on desert areas.

Research on Jatropha is
going on in Mali, South Africa,
India, Pakistan...