Ron try to look at it this way... other wise.... PEACE...
Ethanol
Subsidies
Ethanol is produced by distilling corn into alcohol. It
can also be mixed with gasoline to make gasohol - a
fourth-rate fuel and magnet for government
subsidies. Promises to eliminate the program from
the federal budget are being abandoned as the
prime corporate beneficiary - the Archer Daniels
Midland company - flexes its lobbying muscles.
Producers have received de facto subsidies of
roughly $10 billion since 1980.
Subsidies cost the federal government $770
million a year in direct revenue losses.
These could rise to $1 billion by the year 2000.
State subsidies and revenue losses amount to
several hundred million dollars each year.
Because ethanol production drives up corn
prices, it is estimated that the added cost for
livestock producers is more than $1 billion a
year - eventually paid by consumers.
Byproducts from ethanol production compete
with soybeans, which are largely
unsubsidized, costing soybean farmers some
$300 million per year.
There is considerable evidence that gasohol poses
a risk to the environment. What's more, it costs
more energy to produce than it generates as a
vehicle fuel.
The Clinton Administration has repeatedly tried to
convince gasoline companies to greatly increase
additions of gasohol to motor fuel. House Speaker
Newt Gingrich and Senator Robert Dole are
beneficiaries of large Archer Daniels Midland
political contributions and supporters of the ethanol
program.
Source: James Bovard (for the Cato Institute),
"Dole, Gingrich and the Big Ethanol Boondoggle,"
Wall Street Journal, November 2, 1995. |
