The US Ethanol Sector: An Infant Industry?

n an article published last year, Robbin Johnson and Ford Runge noted, “…Since 1974, when the first federal legislation to promote corn-based ethanol as a fuel was approved, ethanol has been considered an infant industry and provided with increasingly generous government subsidies and mandates…” (Johnson and Runge, 2007)  Earlier this year, Don Warlick stated, “…The beginnings of the ethanol industry started with the Energy Bill of 2005 that supported an infant industry but provided for a ramped-up construction program to build ethanol plants across the Midwest …” (Warlick, 2008)  In this new Andersons Policy Bulletin the arguments for infant industry protection and whether they can be applied to the US ethanol sector are outlined and assessed.

See the entire Bulletin at:

http://aede.osu.edu/programs/Anderson/trade/EthanolBulletin.htm

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