Multibillion-dollar taxpayer subsidies of the ethanol industry have produced a laundry list of negative consequences. Among them are smog, damaged engines in lawnmowers and other equipment, reduced gas mileage, and higher food prices as lots of corn is diverted from food production to ethanol production.
In addition to those harmful effects, the subsidies for ethanol mean ethanol manufacturers get 45 cents from taxpayers for each of the billions of gallons of the costly, inefficient “alternative fuel” they produce.
But the ethanol boondoggle is getting worse. Previously, ethanol was allowed to be blended into gasoline at a maximum rate of only 10 percent. But the Obama administration has declared that ethanol can make up 15 percent of a gallon of gasoline.
And that’s only the beginning. Under federal regulations, there have to be 14 billion gallons of ethanol and other “biofuels” in the nation’s fuel supply this year. But by 2022, America’s fuel supply has to include 36 billion gallons of those fuels.
That means lots more damage to engines, worse gas mileage and other bad effects.
The giveaway to ethanol interests helps farm state lawmakers, who use their support of unconstitutional ethanol subsidies to buy votes from farmers. And it benefits farmers and ethanol manufacturers. But it’s a raw deal for the country.
This is not a liberal-vs.-conservative issue, either. Even liberal former Vice President Al Gore recently renounced his own support for ethanol, saying it was harmful.
Rather than expanding government support for ethanol, the Obama administration should be reducing it.