Joel Velasco

Surely, there are nascent forms of renewable energy that could stand to benefit from tax credits. America’s thriving corn ethanol industry – which now accounts for half of all ethanol produced around the globe and enjoys booming exports to other countries – isn’t one of them.

Since 1980, the industry has benefited from trade protection and $45 billion in taxpayer dollars, the purpose of which has always been to incentivize the use of American-made ethanol by American consumers. Recent reports from CNN Money and Financial Times suggest that some of this money is even subsidizing exports, which means that American taxpayers are paying hard earned money to lower prices at the pump for Europeans and other drivers around the world.

Bipartisan opposition to the costly and unnecessary ethanol tariff and sub

As chatter increases inside the Beltway that some energy legislation may move forward during the lame-duck session, new research from the heart of the farm belt once again battered the economic case for extending the ethanol tariff and subsidies. A new report by Bruce A. Babcock, director of the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) and a professor of economics at Iowa State University, finds that extension of the two policies would have stark consequences for taxpayers and food prices – while allowing them to expire would have no significant impact on the ethanol economy.

Higher Feed Costs for Livestock Industry

The report, Impact on Ethanol, Corn, and Livestock from Imminent U.S. Ethanol Policy Decisions, finds that recent price increases for corn are a direct result of U.S. ethanol policies forcing demand adjustments on the livestock industry – where need for feed rations is fixed – rather than the ethanol industry which

Americans will be watching closely to see if Congress got the message that cutting the deficit and ending wasteful government spending are top priorities. Eliminating ethanol subsidies and trade protection would be a good way for lawmakers to: 1) acknowledge that they heard voters loud and clear on election day; 2) forgo partisan differences to benefit the public interest; and 3) quickly begin implementing solutions that benefit taxpayers’ pocketbooks by lowering fuel prices.

Democrats and Republicans have vowed to work together on this issue. Everyone from fiscal conservatives such as Rep. Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), to progressives like Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY), have expressed objections to ethanol’s current mix of tax credits and trade barriers.

Voters are dissatisfied with the federal government and want to see elected officials find common ground on pocket-book issues that can i

As the dust settled on a midterm election that significantly altered the political landscape, voters sent a clear message that cutting the deficit and ending wasteful government spending should be top priorities for Congress. Americans will be watching closely to see if lawmakers got the message. Eliminating ethanol subsidies and trade protection would be a good way to indicate that they did.

Democrats and Republicans have vowed to work together on this issue, hinting that the days of $6 billion per year in ethanol tax credits could be over when they expire on December 31. Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), the top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee told Bloomberg News that “[t]here are folks who ideologically don’t want to see the tax credit,” noting that the election results were sure to strengthen that viewpoint. Chambliss could be referring to folks like Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), who

The best thing President Obama and Congress could do for ethanol policy this year is nothing. By allowing 30 years of ethanol subsidies and trade protection to expire as scheduled on December 31st, government leaders will be helping to lower fuel prices, save taxpayers money and provide Americans with greater access to advanced renewable fuels like sugarcane ethanol.

Tax credits and import tariffs probably made sense in 1980 to foster the nascent ethanol industry, and the policies have unquestionably worked. America’s corn ethanol has blossomed into a thriving business with booming exports to other countries and now accounts for half of all ethanol produced around the globe. But 30 years later, the time has come to remove the industry’s training wheels and promote market competition.

Brazil made such a move two decades years ago by ending its ethanol subsidies. And the South American country took another important step towards building an open and global biofuels marketplace earlier this year by eliminating its tariff