ethanol
Fuel Ethanol Subsidies and Farm Price Support: Boon or Boondoggle?
Fuel Ethanol: Background and Public Policy Issues.
Brent Yacobucci and Jasper Womach, U. S. Congressional Research Service. April 2003.
Ethanol from Corn: Clean Renewable Fuel for the Future or Drain on Our Resources and Pockets?
(Uncorrected Proof). (Abstract). Tad Patzek, forthcoming in Environment, Development and Sustainability, June 2003.
Ethanol Fuels: Energy Balance, Economics, and Environmental Impacts are Negative.
David Pimental, Natural Resources Research, June 2003.
Thermodynamics of the Corn-Ethanol Biofuel Cycle.
Tad Patzek. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 2004. Web version of article linked to here updated most recently in May 2005. Detailed review (100 pages) of the corn-ethanol fuel cycle concludes that production is a net loser from both an energy and an environmental perspective.
Tax Incentives for Petroleum and Ethanol Fuels.
Give Green, Go Yellow: How cash and corporate pressure pushed ethanol to the fore
This article provides a detailed and interesting history of the origins of US ethanol subsidies and ethanol promotion. It should be read in full. We were happy that our work on ethanol subsidies was useful in the write-up as well:
Ethanol's Growing List of Enemies
...More corn for ethanol producers, of course, means less for livestock. Ranchers in wide-open Western states and pig farmers in the rural stretches of the South and Midwest are finding their businesses slammed by policies cooked up in Washington.
Hitch says the feedstock that's primarily made from corn is the single biggest expense for his business. As corn costs have doubled, meat packers and processors like Tyson Foods (TSN) and Smithfield Foods (SFD) have to pay more for the animals they buy.
The Ethanol Mandate Should Not be Expanded
References Earth Track's detailed 2006 review of US biofuel subsidies published by the IISD: