A politician's confession on Ethanol Subsidies

We've spent plenty of time in class discussing farm subsidies (and export subsidies) and the political economy of their support. Mind you that the following is an opinion piece (by a strongly opinionated Libertarian) and not a news article, but still it had some interesting quotes and numbers:

Al Gore's Alcohol Problem: Admits Ethanol Subsidies a Mistake - The Daily Beast:
"Last week, Al Gore finally admitted the obvious. The former vice president (and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) who promoted ethanol in his Oscar-winning film, “An Inconvenient Truth,” said that corn ethanol was a “mistake.” He went further, saying that he supported ethanol production because the first presidential primary is in Iowa, which produces more ethanol than any other state: “I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president,' he said. Gore also said that the “massive subsidies” given to ethanol are not “good policy.”
From the same article:
According to an analysis done last year by the Environmental Working Group, each of those “green” jobs created by the ethanol scammers cost taxpayers between $195,000 and $446,000 per year. Earlier this month, Advanced Economic Solutions, an Omaha consultancy run by the former chief economist for ConAgra Foods, analyzed how many jobs would be added by extending the ethanol tax credit. Their conclusion: 353 additional ethanol manufacturing jobs would be created, at “an annual cost of $19.68 million per job.”

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