Appetizer

In recent years, particularly after various federal and state subsidies and mandates were passed, ethanol (ethyl alcohol) fuel has become a popular biofuel alternative to gasoline. In the U.S., ethanol is typically produced through a process of fermenting and then distilling corn crops.

Proponents of ethanol (mainly corn producers, ethanol investors, and politicians from agricultural states) argue that it burns cleaner than petroleum-based gasoline, decreases U.S. energy dependence on oil-producing countries, helps to reduce the price at the pump, and creates more jobs in rural America. They usually don't mention the healthy subsidies and mandates necessary to get some of the public to start using ethanol.

The opposition to ethanol is a unique alliance of environmentalists, meat producers, producers of foods dependent on corn, humanitarians, free marketers, fiscal hawks, and others. Various arguments are used by these opponents of ethanol, such as the following:

• The amount of energy (in the form of oil and other sources) going into the production of ethanol results in little to no net gain in energy.
• The production of ethanol increases world food prices.
• It is infeasible for the U.S. to ever become truly energy-independent through ethanol.
• Ethanol production degrades the environment, causing more harm then good.
• Real energy advances will come not through subsidies and mandates, but through free market competition.