Moonshine to motorfuel: tax incentives for fuel ethanol

Framework for evaluating the ethanol tax incentives to determine their economic and environmental effectiveness was presented. Ethyl alcohol was found in alcoholic beverages. The largest single use of ethanol was as a motor fuel and fuel additive and it produced less energy per gallon than gasoline and costed more to produce per unit of energy. In addition, U.S. import tariffs protected domestic production and increased industry prices of ethanol. The results showed that corn used more fertilizers and pesticides per unit of land than any other biofuel feedstock. It was concluded that removing the ethanol tax credit and the import tariff reduced ethanol production by four billion gallons and saved taxpayers about one billion dollars annually.