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Originally posted by Sparhawk
One reason this crappiest of the craptacular agriculture subsidies continues to thrive?
Fucking Iowa, and its spot on the Electoral calendar as the first state in the union to hold primary elections.
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This quote in the article was great:
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"I once asked Governor Tom Vilsack of Iowa at a news conference why Californians and northeasterners should be forced to put ethanol in their gasoline when the science clearly shows it has no environmental benefits," recalls Paul Rogers of the San Jose Mercury News. "Because it helps farmers from my state expand their markets, he explained. 'So I guess you'd support a new federal law to require everybody in Des Moines to buy a computer, to help people in Silicon Valley expand their markets?' I asked. He didn't concur."
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Another source:
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~landerso/97rp13905.htm
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Our analyses of emissions data from the required IM240 tests in the Denver area suggest that there is an average CO decrease during the oxygenated fuels period of about 13%. But these same emissions results present evidence for another concern related to oxygenated fuels use, namely the observed increase in NOx emissions. Previous work has suggested that the effects on NOx emissions were less than 5%. The current analysis estimates the effects to be nearly 14%. In Colorado during the winter, this may have a significant impact on the secondary particulate nitrate contribution to Denver's brown cloud. If NOx emissions increase this much with the use of oxygenated fuels, there might be adverse effects on ozone concentrations related to the use of these fuels. Similar effects on NOx emissions might occur in areas that are required to use reformulated fuels during summer ozone periods as a means of reducing ozone formation. If NOx emissions increase for these fuels by nearly 14%, an ozone increase might occur due to the use of these fuels.
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So basicallly we are paying more for oxygenated fuels that are supposed to help us lower ambient ozone concentrations but these oxygenated fuels run the risk of increasing NOx emissions with lead to higher ozone levels. Sounds like we have a great system in place.