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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ish who wrote (541115)	2/16/2004 5:51:32 PM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Only if you ignore the pollution generated in making the ethanol in the first place. Ethanol cuts air pollution in half by making a more complete burn of the gasoline.

To: Ish who wrote (541115)	2/16/2004 5:58:12 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Hmmm. That's the first time you've substituted the L word for discussion, Ish. I guess this is a hot button issue for you. It's estimated that the excise exemption alone costs U.S. taxpayers as much as $1.4 billion per year. The immediate beneficiaries of ethanol subsidies have been corn farmers and, more significantly, the Archer Daniels Midland Corporation of Decatur, Illinois, better known as ADM. The world's largest grain processor, ADM produces 40 percent of the ethanol used to make gasohol. As might be supposed, the company and its officers have been eloquent in their defense of ethanol and generous in contributing to both political parties. The politicians have been generous right back. The libertarian Cato Institute estimates that every dollar of ADM's ethanol profit costs taxpayers 30 bucks. About MTBE, the piece says "Ethanol has since been touted as a substitute for MTBE, an additive that makes gasoline burn cleaner but also causes groundwater pollution. However, skeptics claim that due to improvements in engine technology, it'd be better just to dispense with such additives altogether."