| Ethanol would not be around in any quantity but for the government subsidies. It is basically a farm and ADM business welfare program. Ethanol takes a great deal of energy to make and you can't send it through a pipeline.
If and when it (and oil shale) become viable without our tax dollars--great. Until then we don't need another government "feel good" welfare program. |
Just goes to show that if you badmouth something long enough people start to believe it.
Subsidies? Tell me how much subsides we have with oil? Billions upon Billions. Look at what we just spend just on the Military alone to keep oil flowing from the middle east. Ethanol has helped the taxpayer. With the higher price of corn the USDA has save Billions in subsidies, payments to farmers. And as far as I know ADM doesn't get any government money for Ethanol. The subsidies from the government for Ethanol are paid to the oil companies. They get 51 cents a gallon for every gallon they mix. The reason they do this is because without the 51 cent blending fee the oil companies would not use it.
As for energy, Ethanol takes far, far less energy to make than Oil does. And you can send it through a pipeline but it would have to be its own pipeline. Hundreds of millions are spent by Oil companies and Companies like Tyson foods discrediting Ethanol just so they can have no competition with energy and cheap corn.
Ethanol makes up for 8% of the US gas supply. Now just imagine if overnight the government came out with a statement that our gas supply is now 8% less. What do you think gas prices would do? With out Ethanol our gas prices would rise 13 to 15%, or 50 cents a gallon. Then would you be saying, "we don't need another government "feel good" welfare program"?