Where do you even begin when someone is this stupid?
I don't hear this mantra from the same sources against the Ethanol producers - which is subsidized on several levels - direct subsidies, not just tax credits or deductions.
The farmers receive direct subsidies
The ethanol "brewers" receive subsidies
And the distributors get tax breaks
And we still pay the same amount of tax per gallon at the pump - regardless of how much ethanol content the fuel has.
What amazes me - E85 (some nasty stuff) use to be available at the pump for something around 40-60 cents per gallon less than regular unleaded (where I use to buy fuel). The primary reason was tax breaks/subsidies . So what happened to that? Last time I looked, E85 was only 10-15 cents "cheaper" per gallon. And when you figure in the 30% (on average) loss in fuel economy - you are paying a HUGE premium to burn fuel with less energy. To even come CLOSE to making ANY sense to the consumer (regardless of supposed or perceived environmental "greenness" ), the price of E85 would have o be less than 2/3 the cost of regular unleaded to "equal out" the out-of-pocket fuel cost. To make any plausible impact beyond, we are looking at closer to 1/2 the cost. Yet that isn't the case. Even with massive subsidies, that isn't feasible today, or in the future because we are paying for the fuel cost in other ways (our taxes used for subsidies, higher food/grocery/and goods costs, etc.).