A general introduction to the issue of oil subsidies, and how reforms could benefit ethanol. It references Earth Track's work (extract below), thought makes only a passing mention of our detailed work on ethanol subsidies though released just a year prior to this article.
Mentions biofuels subsidy study done for IISD's Global Subsidies Initiative:
"But corn-based ethanol, the sort produced in America, is neither cheap nor green. It requires almost as much energy to produce (more, say some studies) as it releases when it is burned. And the subsidies on it cost taxpayers, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, somewhere between $5.5 billion and $7.3 billion a year."
Article cites subsidy value per gallon of ethanol from our October 2006 study for IISD.
.."Boosting ethanol production is the political equivalent of motherhood and apple pie these days. Politicians on both sides of the aisle as well as presidential candidates eager to do well in Iowa, the nation's No. 1 ethanol-producing state, are behind the measure, unglamorously named the "Renewable Fuels Standard." The RFS, part of the energy bill in the Senate, is so popular that it may be enough to ram through energy legislation this year, despite bitter disagreements over other parts of the bills...
...Promoters of the ethanol mandate assert that it would help the United States achieve energy independence and slow the accumulation of greenhouse gases that are driving climate change. Evaluating the scientific and economic claims being made for bioethanol can be vexing, but a few urgent questions come to mind: if bioethanol is such a good energy deal, why must refiners and consumers be forced to use it?
December 6, 2007. "Cheap No more: Rising incomes in Asia and ethanol subsidies in America have put an end to a long era of falling food prices," The Economist. Cites data, though unfortunately without attribution:
Report. Summary slides from release. Growing production and more subsidies converge to trigger an estimated $93 billion in support to ethanol and biodiesel for the 2006-12 period. The report also contains a detailed review of the large and potentially environmentally harmful biofuels subsidies in the pending Energy and Farm bills. Prepared fo the Global Subsidies Initiative. (Oct. 2007).
Detailed review of state and federal subsidies, prepared for the Global Subsidies Initiative. Subsidy costs per unit fossil fuel or GHG displaced exceed $500 per mt of CO2-equivalent. Policy structures are duplicative and generally linked to production rather than to the carbon displacement profile of particular producers. Faster and more efficient ways to achieve the goals of energy security and greenhouse gas mitigation should be pursued. (October 2006).