Can we grow our way out of an energy crisis by using ethanol?
Not likely, according to Cornell University professor David Pimental who said in a recent article: "It is absolute stupidity, and it is a major scam."
Why would business leaders, state and U.S. lawmakers perpetuate a "major scam" on the public?
"Big money and politics" Pimentel said. "Those two words tell it all. Ethanol has 45 times the subsidies that gasoline has. Our government is spending $6 billion annually on subsidies for ethanol."
And the government has, since 1978, subsidized the ethanol industry, according to the non-partisan budget watchdog, Taxpayers for Common Sense. Tax exemptions that total more than $11 billion with a production mandate through 2012 plant dollar signs in the eyes of investors, even if the dynamics of corn-produced biofuel present economic and environmental challenges.
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