Urging Congress to Cancel the Ethanol Tariff

reporter writes "The Wall Street Journal is urging Washington to discard the 54-cent-per-gallon tariff on imported ethanol. This tariff is effectively a subsidy for corn-based ethanol produced in the USA. Yet, producing ethanol from corn is highly inefficient and consumes 1 unit of energy for each 1.3 units of energy that burning ethanol provides. By contrast, ethanol derived from sugarcane (which is the sole source of ethanol in Brazil) yields 8.3 units of energy. Sugercane is about 7 times more efficient than corn. Some studies even show that corn yields only 0.8 unit of energy, resulting in a net loss of energy."

Comments

American market protectionism fails capitalism

[spineboy]

Wow - the tiny American alcohol producing industry has a choke hold on keeping pump prices inflated. I'm sure this protectionism tax is left over from trying to protect American DRINKING alcohol interests. Maybe if the alcohol was denatured (i.e. poisoned with a bit of methanol, making it unsafe to drink), could the foreign produced alcohol be imported without the tariff. Hell, I don't see why American sugarcane producers can't produce the alcohol for a cheaper price.

Damn wiould I like to see pump prices drop - I'm paying $3.70 out here in Los Angeles for premium 91 octane (we don't get the good 93 oct out here due to smog :-( ). While this is cheap compared to the rest of the world, I'm sure that we pay for the low gas prices by other means...

I'm sure once the American dependence on foreign oil abated, then the middle east situation (Iragi civil war) wouldn't "require" the American presence anymore......

You my fine sir are full of it....

[codepunk]

Ethanol is cleaner burning by a huge margin and the largest contributor to engine failure is dirt generally dirt caused by burning petroleum fuel. Ethanol will burn cleaner actually extending the life of a engine considerably if designed to burn it. Alcohol also has a much higher knock rating and burns cooler which also contributes to
longer engine life.... so you are dead wrong sir...