About Damned TIme - II

Congress ends corn ethanol subsidy

The United States has ended a 30-year tax subsidy for corn-based ethanol that cost taxpayers $6 billion annually, and ended a tariff on imported Brazilian ethanol.

Congress adjourned for the year on Friday, failing to extend the tax break that's drawn a wide variety of critics on Capitol Hill, including Sens. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. Critics also have included environmentalists, frozen food producers, ranchers and others.

The policies have helped shift millions of tons of corn from feedlots, dinner tables and other products into gas tanks.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth praised the move.

"The end of this giant subsidy for dirty corn ethanol is a win for taxpayers, the environment and people struggling to put food on their tables," biofuels policy campaigner Michal Rosenoer said Friday.

Ethanol from corn as a source of automobile fuel has been one of the worst ideas ever forced on the US by Congress.  It is barely (if even that) a net source of energy for cars, after considering the fossil fuels which go into corn production and the refining of the ethanol.  It removes corn from the food market and helps drive up the price of  food, and it is a lousy fuel, especially for marine engines, in which it causes inconvenient and even dangerous failures.  And, for all that, we got to subsidize it to the extent of 45 cents a gallon. Good riddance.