Rice University paper questions U.S. ethanol subsidies

Federal taxpayers paid $1.95 a gallon in ethanol subsidies in 2008 on top of the retail gasoline price, a new white paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy determined. The 118-page analysis from the Houston-based institute says the United States needs to rethink its policy of promoting ethanol. Amy Myers Jaffe, one of the white paper’s authors and an associate director of the Rice energy program, said in a press release that the federal government’s aggressive goals for ethanol production could mean “throwing taxpayer money out the window.”

Access the white paper here