De toekomst van de Amerikaanse ethanolsubsidies

Op Alt Energy Stocks is een interessant artikel verschenen van Jeff Coombe over de vraag of de Ethanol subsidies in de VS (met een omvang van ongeveer 5 miljard dollar in 2009) al dan niet vernieuwd zouden moeten worden. De conclusie van Coombe (die ik overigens niet deel):

“With the biofuels industry mired in a worse rut than the overall U.S. economy, government efforts to help the industry should not be cut. However, alternative incentive schemes need to be devised that provide more bang for the taxpayer buck. Systems including grants and loan guarantees for the construction of plants using second-generation feedstocks, a blending equalization scheme recently proposed in Biofuels Digest, and a new tax-and-tariff system proposed by researchers at Iowa State University and the USDA are all being discussed. With the current subsidy set to expire, now is the best time to explore better and more effective support schemes for the U.S. biofuels industry.”