A great way to start the day
This story came in over the transom -- from
The Daily Beast:
Ethanol Subsidies: Congress Sacrifices a Sacred Cow
Ethanol subsidies have been a sacred cow in American politics since the late 1980s, and their demise came Friday not with a whimper but with a bang. By a vote of 73 to 27, the Senate declared an end to what Republican Senator John McCain called the "corporate welfare" that had gone on for far too long, and that had become enshrined in presidential politics as a ticket of admission to the Iowa caucuses. Now the legislation moves to the House, where deficit-conscious Tea Party conservatives could provide a similar winning margin.
Members of both parties called the vote the end of an era, crediting the courage of a single senator, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn, with setting the stage and making possible a victory that many believed would never occur. In the context of the overall budget, the dollars saved are relatively small�about $6 billion a year�but the symbolism is huge for breaking the stalemate over the budget deficit that is currently paralyzing Congress and threatening the U.S. credit standing.
Ethanol�a corn-based fuel blended with gasoline�has long been championed by powerful Midwestern lawmakers, who routinely got a 45-cent per gallon tax credit renewed each year to the joy of corn farmers whose product is used to make ethanol and the blenders who mix it. They also managed for years to keep a tariff on imports of ethanol, giving the U.S. industry a distinct advantage.
But the legislation approved Friday, originally proposed by Coburn but this version sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) eliminates both the subsidy and the tariff.
I hope this will put an end to the mandatory 10% Ethanol in our gasoline. Plays hell on small engines.
Posted by DaveH at June 21, 2011 10:24 AM