The Current Energy Bill is Filthy as a Pig

Oil prices have spurred a lot of posts on the blog lately and have also created a sense of urgency in the Congress to get in Energy Bill thru. A point of contention within the bill is the ethanol mandate. Ethanol provides a perfect case study in “pork-barrel politics” for students of government. Ethanol is by most accounts an inefficient fuel additive yet it has been given favorable tax treatment and other benefits since its subsidization in the late 1970’s. An ethanol mandate does surely benefit the Midwestern corn farms, but the other side of the coin is that gasoline becomes more expensive for all of us. Such an impact is exactly what we do not need right now. The current energy bill will most likely have little if any effect on the current prices of oil and soon the price will stabilize, however, by continuing to support the ethanol mandate Congress will in effect do the same thing that high gas prices do to the consumer... take money out of their pocket.