A Reason to Support McCain

This post is a little late as Iowa and thus ethanol are irrelevant for a while. But, the issue will be back in the general election as Iowa is a swing state. Ethanol subsidies are one of the least reasonable policy ideas around.

Corn-based ethanol uses up as much energy as can be gotten from it, pollutes more than gasoline, and is much more expensive. There's also little prospect of it being made anywhere near as efficient as gasoline or other sources of energy. The policy would be laughed off if not for two things: 1.) To the uninformed (>95% of voters), it sounds like a good idea to get energy from crops, and sounds like it wouldn't pollute much; 2.) A lot of people, who live in states who will benefit from subsidies, happen to agree that it is a good idea, and will vote based on it.

So, this seems like a great example of an issue where the relatively honest politician could tell the truth and the sleazier politician will go along.

- Barack Obama, who often seems to be a relatively honest politician, has changed his mind and now supports ethanol subsidies (but also restrictions against importing sugar-based ethanol from Brazil).
- John McCain has consistently opposed ethanol subsidies, even though it appears to have hurt him politically in both of his Presidential campaigns.

I'm generally skeptical of the idea that politicians do something because they think it's right, but perhaps McCain is doing just that here. Or perhaps I'm a sucker.