How to save taxpayers $6 billion a year

Repeal the subsidy on corn ethanol, says Sen. Jim Webb and Sen. Dianne Feinstein. They have introduced a bill to do so.

Corn ethanol is wasteful and an obvious giveaway to agribusiness. Other methods of making ethanol are much more promising, like from leftovers / waste from crop, animal, and wood processing, and especially algae. With algae, the raw materials are created next to the processing so nothing needs to be trucked.

Corn ethanol drives up the price of food, which might be somewhat of a minor (if increasing) problem here. But if you say, live in Sri Lanka and make $2 a day, these increases are devastating.

2 Comments

  1. While we’re at it, we should ditch the entire agribusiness model created by Butz and Nixon. Seriously. “Go Big or Go Home” should Go Away. It is the single most important cause of most of our agriculture related problems.

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