The Palmetto Insider

It’s difficult to tell what was more troubling about the pro-ethanol opinion piece The Myrtle Beach Sun-Times ran recently: that there are groups such as Americans for Democratic Action still pushing this propaganda or that one of South Carolina’s largest newspapers felt it was worthy of space in its pages.
 
While the Washington, D.C.-based organization does trot out several time-honored canards, such as the use of ethanol as a gasoline supplement reduces the cost by 40 cents per gallon (that difference is the result of subsidies because a gallon of ethanol costs far more to produce than a gallon of conventional gasoline), it also employs a new tactic, saying we need to continue this subsidy sinkhole because it’s “good for the economy.”

Don Kusler of Americans for Democratic Action, argues that we should continue throwing good money after bad because ethanol is a growing industry that’s producing secure domestic jobs.

If the ethanol industry is growing, it’s because it’s received tens of billions of dollars in subsidies over the past 30 years. With that kind of government support, what industry wouldn’t be producing “secure” domestic jobs?

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