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Originally Posted by Schneed10

But isn't there a return on investment case to be made on this?

You can mix ethanol at up to 10% levels into gasoline and cars will still run fine. I haven't done the math, but the financial analyst in me says:

- You have a cash outlay of $6 Billion
- You have savings on gasoline of 10% x Gallons of Gas Sold at Pump x (Price of Gasoline per Gallon - Price of Ethanol per Gallon)

So the question becomes, without the Ethanol subsidy could we still realize the savings on the 10% of gasoline that's displaced by Ethanol?

I'm sure this is overly simplified, but somebody somewhere needs to do an ROI on this before recommending cutting the subsidy.

Not sure how.

In 1986 the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated the average cost of producing ethanol at $l.60 a gallon, more than double the then wholesale gasoline price of 60 cents a gallon (the current wholesale price is roughly 55 cents).


Ethanol has done poorly on its own largely because it is a relatively lousy fuel. An Agriculture Department report observed,

Each gallon of ethanol contains about two-thirds as much energy as does gasoline, resulting in reduced fuel economy. One would expect vehicles using gasohol to show about a 3.3 percent reduction in miles per gallon since ethanol constitutes 10 percent of the ethanol-gasoline blend. In a recent report on the performance of alcohol-gasoine blends, the DOE concluded that gasohol-fueled vehicles averaged 4.7 percent fewer miles per gallon than gasoline-fueled vehicles in automobile fleets.(35)

The comparatively feeble fuel value of ethanol is a large part of the reason why the fuel is so discounted from its cost of production. The USDA report further noted,

Fuel ethanol sold for about $0.90 per gallon in July 1986. This price does not reflect its free market value because gasoline blenders qualify for Federal and State ethanol subsidies. After deducting the value of the subsidies ($0.60 per gallon for the Federal subsidy and some $0.30- $0.40 average for State subsidies) the net cost of ethanol to blenders is about zero. This indicates that ethanol producers could not survive without the subsidies, and suggests that most will need even larger subsidies to stay in business unless petroleum prices increase sharply. Net of applicable subsidies, ethanol is selling for about $0.30 per gallon less than the wholesale price of gasoline.(36)

Yet, while ethanol was selling (net of subsidies) for half the price of gasoline, it cost more than twice as much to produce as gasoline. Obviously, government intervention is necessary.