Sam McDonald Chapter 8 #6

An area that surprised me while I was reading this chapter was the section on ethanol. Normally I would argue that using ethanol as a substitute to oil is substantially beneficial to our economy and the environment. Apparently ethanol is potentially even worse for the environment, even not including run off from pesticides, and has cost the treasury $7.1 Billion. With this knowledge, the most presidents and presidential candidites still allows for ethanol subsidies. Why? because Iowa is extremely important to the presidential race, and corn is important for Iowa. Therefore, a great majority of presidential candidates support ethanol substitutes and keep them in place. This is surprising, yet understandable at the same time.