The End of Ethanol?

“Biofuels have always sounded better during the Iowa caucuses than they have performed in reality.” The Chicago Tribune on why federal ethanol subsidies may be on the chopping block. “With the national debt soaring, the government needs to wean the biofuel industry from its dependence on federal subsidies. … Taxpayers have bankrolled biofuel research and a boom in ethanol production. Aggressive mandates have hiked the amounts of ethanol blended into the gasoline supply, and the industry is pushing for even higher levels of the corn-based fuel in each gallon. At the same time, trade barriers have kept out cheaper ethanol produced from sugar in Brazil and other countries.”