Summary
Corn is one of the most inefficient raw materials for ethanol conversion. Sugar cane and some root crops have more than twice the yield. Although, as the article points out, corn makes little economic sense, tariff barriers and the farm lobby in Washington - with their nationalist rhetoric - continue to support this distortion. To encourage the growing use of bio-fuels, feedstocks should be better subject to a zero tariff, based upon a free trade agreement that would benefit the planet and not a few interested parties.
Analysis
I believe that free trade in bio fuel components will significantly benefit exporters such as Brazil, Central America and the Caribbean at the expense of US Agriculture.
, it could advance the uptake of E85 type bio-fuels, which are significantly more carbon neutral and positively impact global warming.
The Brazilian example of widely available alcohol based retail fuels should be replicated in the US, there are few technological barriers. Many auto makers have already equiped their vehicles to accept such fuels.
