Investors.com reported yesterday that the Congress has let the ethanol subsidies expire, but has not repealed the mandates requiring the use of ethanol. The money saved will go into the treasury–not to the taxpayers.

The article reminds us that ethanol is NOT good for the environment:

Farmers will do fine, but most taxpayers and consumers will not. The price of corn will remain high, continuing to be pushed higher by the forced use of ethanol in gasoline that has not expired. Food prices driven higher by this mandate will continue to rise, as will gas prices as the added cost to ethanol producers is passed down the line, paid ultimately by the consumer at the gas pump.

Ethanol was supposed to save the earth and pave the way to energy independence. It has done neither. We are more dependent more than ever on foreign sources of petroleum, used in a wide variety of products and processes as well as our cars, and increased biofuel cultivation has hurt the environment through increased use of pesticides, farmland expansion and agricultural runoff polluting our rivers and coastal waters.

Each acre of corn requires 130 pounds of nitrogen and 55 pounds of phosphorous.

Increased acreage means increased agricultural runoff that is creating aquatic dead zones in our rivers, bays and coastal areas.

The article also points out that adding ethanol to gasoline results in poorer gas mileage than gasoline without ethanol. Ethanol is not good for the environment or the economy. We need to end the ethanol mandate as well as the subsidy.