Biofuel Follies

Latest column from George Will:

The environmental argument for ethanol and other biofuels is... refuted by the need to mandate and subsidize the fuels. The argument that biofuels are important for reducing our energy dependence on unreliable or dangerous Middle Eastern nations (the two largest sources of U.S. oil imports are turbulent Canada and militant Mexico) is mocked by the 54-cents-a-gallon tariff penalizing Brazilian ethanol. The theory behind that tariff is as old as American history. It is that "infant industries"—in this case, the ethanol industry that the government has ordered into existence—require protection. But protection permanently infantilizes industries.