Government policies pushing the production of ethanol are hurting the environment, according to the Foundation for Economic Education: an example of Washington's left hand not supporting what Washington's right hand is doing.
The EPA's study, “Biofuels and the Environment: The Second Triennial Report to Congress,” has found that the government's own biofuel mandate has resulted in:
- Worse Water Quality: harmful algae blooms causing hypoxia
- Worse Soil Quality: increased erosion and loss of soil nutrients
- Worse Air Quality: harmful emissions from ethanol
Meanwhile, the government continues to subsidize ethanol production through the Bush tax incentive known as the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit. Of course, this isn't the first ethanol subsidy. Thoughtco.com listed a total of five previous subsidies, including the Energy Policy Act of 1978 (gave a 40-cent tax exemption per gallon of ethanol), the Surface Transportation Assistance Act of 1982 (increased the tax exemption to 50 cents per gallon of ethanol), the 1990 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (extended the ethanol subsidy to 2000), the 1998 Transportation Efficiency Act of the 21st Century (extended the ethanol subsidy through 2007), and the Jobs Creation Act (gave a straight tax credit to producers).
In 2016, Trump promised corn and soybean farmers that he was with them "100 percent" and strongly supported continuing the ethanol subsidy.
