It’s time to end the ethanol tax credit according to one of the economistsat the conservative “Public Interest Institute” at Iowa Wesleyan College inMount Pleasant. Economics professor Arlan DeBlieck says while some claim the corn-basedfuel is cleaner-burning, it also increases the amount of nitrogen oxide — agreenhouse gas — that’s released into the atmosphere.DeBlieck says ethanol has benefits, but it also has some drawbacks that themarketplace has not been allowed to evaluate because of the artificialdemand created by the tax break.DeBlieck says hemp growers in the western U-S might be better able toproduce a cheap fuel additive which competes with oil-based M-T-B-E. M-T-B-E and ethanol are presently the only fuel additives which are used toreduce smog emissions in the U-S.
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