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Editorial: Ethanol’s new rescue cry

03/23/2009
Every time fuel ethanol blows off its economic moorings, as state-sponsored energy always does, Congress obliges with new support. The latest rescue, enacted in 2007, is looking expensive and probably unfeasible. Plant economics, meanwhile, have soured. Predictably, the ethanol industry wants new help.Ethanol’s history should make fans of government support for noncommercial energy cautious. Since 1978, fuel ethanol made from grain has enjoyed various, generous tax breaks, without which it would not be commercial. Because ethanol boosts octane, it already had a natural market after federal regulations phased lead out of gasoline in the mid-1970s. But that wasn’t enough.In the ...
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