Feinstein, GOP senator fight subsidies for ethanolDemocratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn have joined forces with Tea Party activists in an attempt to kill $6 billion a year in ethanol subsidies, taking on the corn lobby and anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist.
Ethanol, an alcohol fuel made from corn and used as a gasoline additive, for decades has received lavish federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks, import tariffs and regulations that set a goal of gasoline to contain up to 10 percent ethanol. The Environmental Protection Agency this year approved blends of up to 15 percent ethanol for cars made in 2001 and later. >>>
The government pays refiners 45 cents a gallon through a tax credit to refine ethanol. An additional 54-cents-per-gallon tariff blocks imports of less-expensive and more energy-efficient sugar-based ethanol from Brazil. >>>
"Ethanol is the only industry that benefits from a triple crown of government intervention," Feinstein said. "Its use is mandated by law, it is protected by tariffs, and companies are paid by the federal government to use it." >>>
Feinstein and Coburn appear to be winning the debate among conservatives, drawing support from the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the Economist magazine, conservative commentator Chuck Colson, and RedState.org and FreedomWorks. >>>
Farm state Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Kent Conrad, D-N.D., began a rearguard action, introducing a bill that would extend the ethanol tax credit through 2016 >>>
A broad coalition of 90 organizations, from Greenpeace to the Grocery Manufacturers Association, is opposing the ethanol subsidies. Ethanol uses 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop, putting upward pressure on corn prices.
Because fossil fuels are used both to grow corn and to refine it into ethanol, and because ethanol does not yield as much energy per gallon as gasoline, various studies have shown that ethanol does not save much energy overall and may increase greenhouse gas emissions.
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Pigs must be flying somewhere. Sen. Dianne Franken-feinstein finally gets something right. Still, when a democrat takes a stance, follow the money.
Its pretty obvious to most of us that ethanol truly is an inferior and destructive fuel that gets significantly lower MPG, eats up rubber and plastic parts in the fuel system, the seals, gaskets, and generally damages internal combustion engines in very short order. A perfect recipe for Lord Stinky and the Green Demagogue Party to turn the US into a gregarian 'utopian' society.
Unfortunately, I don't look for this to get much traction. The girly men in the GOP leadership wouldn't want to muss up their makeup somehow or 'make waves' and upset the 'sensitive relationship' they have with their metro-sexual marxist friends across the aisle.
