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"One current estimate is that gasoline prices would be 15% higher without ethanol

Is that factoring WITH or WITHOUT "our" billions and billions of tax subsidies?

If this is such a good deal, why can't it stand on its own merits and let the free market decide?

Of course we all know the answer to that one.

And how about the sharp increase in all food products which will ONLY continue to rise as this biggest boondoggle in my 64 years is mandated to continue.

Corn ethanol is viable right now without subsidy. The subsidy should, in principle, be phased out. The question is when. The big wait-and-see factor is cellulosic ethanol, which multiplies the potential resource base several, perhaps many, times over. If you approach this from a national security/energy security perspective, this is a big, big deal.

The Billion Ton Study estimated that the existing resource base, with cost-competitive cellulosic ethanol, could supply 30% of our gasoline usage. That -- to repeat -- is the existing resource base, mainly current farm and forest waste. It doesn't include dedicated energy crops, genetically modified feedstocks, or the commercialization of exotic feedstocks

It's all too fluid to put a number on. However, the first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol demonstration plants are being built right now and if they hit their projected price targets, the world of energy will change big time, and fast. There are no guarantees but cellulosic ethanol in conjunction with plug-in hybrids could conceivably be a path to energy independence. That doesn't seem to matter to some people around here. It does to me.