Bipartisan frustration with ethanol

Lawmakers of both parties are growing weary of the billions of dollars spent each year on federal subsidies for corn-based ethanol. In fact, an encouraging, bipartisan movement is afoot to kill the subsidies.

Ethanol makers get 45 cents from U.S. taxpayers for each gallon of the fuel they produce, and the government requires that billions of gallons of ethanol be blended into our fuel supply. Meanwhile, a 54-cent-per-gallon tariff keeps out cheaper, sugar-based ethanol imports from Brazil.

"Ethanol is the only industry that benefits from a triple crown of government intervention," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., recently told The New York Times. "Its use is mandated by law, it is protected by tariffs, and companies are paid by the federal government to use it."

That's wrong and unconstitutional. Ethanol's subsidies should end.

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