France’s auditor says ‘scale back ethanol tax breaks’.

In France, the government’s auditor has released a new report showing the environmental benefit of the country’s ethanol policy was hard to determine, while fossil fuel use was only down by 5%. The big winner in the policy are farmers who have more outlets for their crop production.

The auditor is recommending that tax breaks be scaled back now that the industry’s investments have been mostly paid off. The government has offered tax breaks worth $3.46 billion between 2005 and 2010.