Technology ReviewNew federal biofuel standards will distort development of energy technologies March/April, 2008
(College of Agriculture) -- Few things prompt Washington policymakers to forget their professed belief in the efficiency of free markets faster than $100-a-barrel oil prices--or even the threat of them. In one of the most notable recent examples, as the price of crude oil edged toward the $100 mark late last year, the U.S. Congress passed, and President Bush quickly signed, the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. A Purdue University professor of agricultural economics has calculated how different types of government policies, including the new mandated consumption levels, will affect the economics of corn ethanol. |