Here Comes The Ethanol Bail Out
A few days ago I posted on news about several ethanol plants possibly staring down the barrel of bankruptcy. Today comes news of North Dakota’s legislature planning on using some of our tax dollars they’ve been hoarding in a special fund to bail out the ethanol plants.
North Dakota Legislature set up an ethanol subsidy fund four years ago hoping to encourage more ethanol factories
The fund hasn’t been used yet but it could be making payments soon. The fund’s formula is set up to help ethanol plants if fuel prices decline and Corn prices stay high
This year corn prices have usually been above three dollars a bushel. And the price of ethanol has dropped from $2.50 a gallon in January to about $1.70 a gallon now
North Dakota Commerce Department energy engineer Bill Huether says the fund has some payment limits. New plants can only get up to one-point-six (M) million dollars of support each year. And each factory is capped at ten (M) million dollars of support during its lifetime.
Why should North Dakotans have to pay for this? Since when is this an appropriate role of government? It’s like North Dakota citizens are being forced by the government to invest their money in a failing industry.
I have nothing against ethanol per se, but I’m tired of being taxed so that politicians can prop the industry up. There may come a day when gas prices reach a point where corn ethanol, or any other type of ethanol for that matter, is an economically viable alternative to gasoline. But that day is not today, and I cannot see the wisdom in spending tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to bail out an industry producing a product there isn’t really a market for yet.
