First, I thought it was a good week. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) announced that the Senate had voted to eliminate the govmint subsidy on ethanol. Evidently the vote crossed parties, with both donkeys and elephants voting to do away with the subsidy. It was claimed that this would save the govmint some $6 billion per year.
I was elated. Was the govmint really getting serious about lowering the budget? Evidently not. Almost immediately after that announcement another announcement explained that the House had voted to continue the subsidy.
Damn!
We have had a subsidy on ethanol since 1978, as Part of the Energy Policy Act of 1978 (you do remember when the Energy Policy was gonna lessen our need for foreign oil, save us tons of money and bring prosperity and happiness to our country, don’t you). We have “enjoyed†this subsidy for some 33 years now, and I have been strongly opposed to it during that entire time.
In the first place, if ethanol was such a fine, thrifty, product that was gonna save us money, how come it needed a subsidy?
Surely you know by now what a travesty this has been. It has converted gajillions of acres from food production to corn from which ethanol has been derived. It surely hasn’t saved us money—not if the govmint is spending $6 billion per year.
Plus, this type of subsidy seldom—if ever—works to the benefit of the citizens. The govmint looked at the fuel crisis and decided that what we needed was an ethanol subsidy. Once the solution is determined and subsidized by the govmint, it has a tendency to deter all of the efforts of profit-seeking entrepreneurial types to come up with a truly cheaper fuel—a fuel that could compete in the marketplace with no subsidy. Perhaps they could produce a product that would beat gasoline by a significant amount, but not enough to compete with that accursed subsidy, so they gave up.
I have been told that this recent set of announcements was just political posturing by congress. The Senate voted to kill the subsidy, to please their cut-the-budget constituents, but they knew the House would vote to keep the subsidy. I surely can’t figure out the shenanigans of congress, so I don’t know.
However, I would be willing to bet that the agricultural lobby is working like the very devil to make sure this subsidy stays on the books.