If you are going to do ethanol subsidies, it should be done for ALL ethanol, not just for corn-based ethanol as currently done. Algenol is a company that produces ethanol using algae, and they can produce it in much greater volume than can be produce by corn. There are other means of producing ethanol as well (e.g. switchgrass), but right now, the ethanol subsidy is directed to corn-based ethanol, thereby distorting the market, stifling competition, and preventing further growth of the ethanol market.
To make matters worse, tarriffs prevent the importation of sugar-cane based ethanol that could compete with corn-based ethanol and drive down the price even further. This further protects the corn-based ethanol industry at the expense of everybody else.
I fully share Dr. Zubrin’s enthusiasm for the FFV standard and for pursuing an open fuel standard that lets alcohol fuels compete with petroleum based fuels. But the subsidies and tarriffs have got to go, as they only distort the market and are more of an impediment to achieving the open fuel standard while lining the pockets of agribusiness.
If we are going to have any intervention in the market by the federal goverment, require automakers to produce FFV’s, and then get the tarriffs and subsidies out of the way. The market will finish the job.
