why does federal govt. insist on promoting ethanol?

Answer 1

To put it in a nutshell, if we were to take all of the petroleum imported, find away to get enough cellulose and use them to produce ethanol, it would increase our fuel supply in the US by a modest 30 to 60 percent according to the majority of the studies on the topic.

Answer 2

because we, the people, have come to believe that ethanol is "good" and renewable and petroleum is "bad" and foriegn

the federal government has a long history of promoting things that sound good

this is a common government problem
there is a famous quote (must not be that famous because I can't remember who said it, but it should be famous) that goes something like:

"the process of government is largely replacing what works with what sounds good"

in the end, it won't matter that much, markets will prevail, cost effective is cost effective, but in the mean time we will waste some effort and resources

its the way it goes

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see, that guy who answered ahead of me?
not a true statement in the whole answer, and yet
he does represent a large fraction of "we the people"

Answer 3

The way the ag.business was set up, back in the 40's, the government is now trying to encourage self-sufficient farmers, and do away with farm substances. It is a clean-burning fuel, that will help the environment, and the auto-makers are getting thier pockets lined farther, so they are not against it been used.

Answer 4

It's a new form of fuel for your car and it's about a third cheaper than gasoline.It's made from corn and it doesn't pollute the air like exhaust does.

Answer 5

Cleaner emissions, home grown, little if any dependency on foriegn oil.....these are all good things. Plus I love farmers, they are good poeple.