Free Republic

Like most people I’ve spoken with, I have no innate, inflexible antipathy to ethanol in gasoline. What upsets me are the deceptive claims used to justify adding mostly corn-based ethanol to this indispensable fuel; the way seriously harmful unintended consequences are brushed aside; and the insidious crony corporatist system the ethanol program has spawned between producers and members of Congress.What angers me are the legislative and regulatory mandates that force us to buy gasoline that is 10% ethanol – even though it gets lower mileage than 100% gasoline, brings none of the proclaimed benefits (environmental or otherwise), drives up food...

A federal program, once launched, is impossible to kill. It doesn't matter if the scheme wastes money. It doesn't matter if the program doesn't work. It doesn't even matter if the program does the very opposite of what it is supposed to do. Every government program enters the world with an army of fairy godmothers prepared to fend off any effort to cut the cord -- hence the staying power of ethanol. When President George W. Bush signed legislation to expand a federal requirement to blend gasoline with ethanol in 2007, he could claim with some credibility that he was...

Energy Policy: Congress let the corn-based fuel's tax credits expire when it adjourned, but continuing mandates for its use means pump prices will go even higher and the money saved will be spent elsewhere. Subsidies for ethanol expired over the weekend, ironically just days before the Iowa caucuses. In their 33 years of existence, ethanol subsidies, the original poster child for crony capitalism, with an estimated cost of at least $45 billion and an annual price tag in recent years of $6 billion, have been a political sacred cow, letting farm state politicians bring home the bacon in exchange for...

Newt Gingrich spent the last decade being paid by big business to convince conservatives to support big-government policies that would profit his clients. Gingrich's consulting firm racked up $1.6 million in fees from the government-sponsored enterprise Freddie Mac, we learned this week from Bloomberg News. Gingrich's job was to help Freddie Mac win over conservatives to this market-distorting, bubble-fueling, housing-subsidy entity, which is now officially owned by the federal government. We also know that Growth Energy, an ethanol lobby, paid $312,500 to the Gingrich Group in 2009, according to the group's tax filing. Growth Energy lobbies to preserve many ethanol...

In Greece earlier this month, Al Gore made a startling admission: "First-generation ethanol, I think, was a mistake." Unfortunately, Americans have Gore to thank for ethanol subsidies. In 1994, then-Vice President Al Gore ended a 50-50 tie in the Senate by voting in favor of an ethanol tax credit that added almost $5 billion to the federal deficit last year. And that number doesn't factor the many ways in which corn-based ethanol mandates drive up the price of food and livestock feed. Sure, he meant well, but as Reuters reported, Gore also said, "One of the reasons I made that...

The Norquist–Coburn Feud ReignitesAre tax subsidies the same as tax cuts, or are they just subsidies? The feud between Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) and tax lobbyist Grover Norquist came to a head (again) this week as Republicans girded themselves for a potential deal on the debt ceiling. Sparks flew Tuesday when Coburn forced a cloture vote on an amendment to eliminate $6 billion in ethanol tax subsidies. Ethanol, however, was hardly the issue at stake. GOP leaders have made it clear that Republicans will not support a deal to raise the debt ceiling if it includes tax increases. But...

The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday to end the 45-cent-a-gallon subsidy the government gives refiners and the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol from Brazil and other countries. The proposal to end the ethanol incentives passed 73 to 27, and came in the form of an amendment that was tacked onto an underlying economic development bill that is not expected to pass the Senate. The White House said it was against a "straight repeal" of the federal incentives for ethanol.

Now that the per-gallon price of gasoline has creeped up to $3.15, $3.20 and beyond, it is as if nobody cares. Not like the days when gas was in the mid $2.50's and George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were getting hammered by the media for high gas prices and making their rich oil buddies richer. What is going on? Are we content with having massive untapped oil reserves in the U.S., and yet being held hostage to the Middle East and Venezuela? Are Americans content with not being in control of our own oil destiny? Have we turned into...

Ethanol stirred Wall Street last week when the second-largest ethanol producer went public, a sign that the corn-based fuel has become hot as gas prices soar. In its first day of trading, VeraSun Energy Corp.'s stock jumped 30% to $30 a share. Production capacity of ethanol in the U.S. has more than doubled since 1999, and the total number of ethanol plants has nearly doubled as well, to 97, with at least 30 more under construction. In April, Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., bought a large stake in Pacific Ethanol Inc., which produces ethanol. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. recently said...