Houston Chronicle warns aginst ethanol mandates: will “increase taxes,” “damage the environment,” and “add to Americans’ burden of high fuel and food costs”

An editorial in the Houston Chronicle warned against US ethanol mandate bills which would raise ethanol usage to 36 billion gallons in 2022 and 60 billion gallons by 2030. The editorial stated that “The government-supported push for ethanol will not only increase taxes and damage the environment, but will add to Americans’ burden of high fuel and food costs and especially hurt people on fixed incomes. And it will do almost nothing to reduce dependence on foreign oil — all of the ethanol production this year will replace less than 5 percent of the gasoline sold.”

The paper cites an Iowa State study that estimates that ethanol production has caused food prices to rise by $47 per person in the past 12 months.

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