The Great Ethanol Scam

I've blogged before about the dubious environmental benefits from ethanol, and the evidence seems to get more convincing all the time that this is NOT the solution it is touted to be. And because my friend Chubby is probably missing having to answer for my criticisms of ethanol, I think it's time for one more:

Consumer Reports has a cover story looking at the decrease in fuel economy that accompanies using ethanol rather than gasoline (due to a decreased energy content), as well as describing the perverse incentives that automakers have to produce the "flex-fuel vehicles" to run on E85, even if the car never acutally uses ethanol. The question of whether ethanol provides a net thermodynamic advantage when the entire production chain is factored in continues...of course if we got rid of all the subsidies to ethanol AND conventional fuel we wouldn't have to argue about it, the market would provide a ready answer. The information-hiding aspects of government subsidies are probably even more of a problem in the grand scheme of things than the offensiveness that they are spending our money to support certain companies and industries.