Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) wrote an op-ed piece "A mature industry can sacrifice: That was the case with ethanol, and it's especially the case with oil" in today's Star Tribune.
She and others worked "to end the major tax credit for ethanol". Ethanol production "is now a competitive, established industry in the energy market…"
She asks why the oil industry isn't treated the same.
I think the answer is two-fold - lots of conservatives don't like the ethanol industry but they are paid big bucks by the oil industry.
Were all the oil subsidies a good idea some time in the past? Possibly. Consider that lots of oil was discovered and extracted by wildcatters. These were small groups that took the risks, financial and physical, to find the oil and drill the original wells. Many were the dry holes that they drilled.
Congress in its great wisdom saw the huge benefit of an oil-based economy and gave the hundreds or thousands of wildcatters a boost through various tax credits.
Now the oil industry is a mature industry of only five companies. Their probability of dry wells is practically nil compared to the wildcatters. Even with their safety shortcuts, their financial risks are small.
It's way past time to cut the oil subsidies.
