Pro corn -- Your point on the proliferation of government subsidies across the board is well taken. But economists would argue that just because government might fund projects recklessly in other industries (sports, etc), they ought not get a pass for for funding an industry whose product is unable to fulfill the demands initially made upon it.

When people want to bash the ethanol subsity they should also think about all the money used to subsidize the oil industry, including the millitary costs. Also think about how much the cost of gassoline would go up if we removed ethanol right now. About 3% of the U.S. gas supply ethanol and ethanol is the only capacity that has been added to our reffining industry in many years. Also to bash the funding provided to build ethanol plans is hypocritical since we seem to have no trouble giving government money to sports teams or other industries and no one pays any attention to that.