With Help, Could Ethanol Be the Next Internet?

May 27 - NY Times.com - From New York to Washington, government suddenly seems to be in the business of promoting alternative energy. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York announced last week that the city’s taxi fleet would convert to hybrids by 2012. In this year’s State of the Union address, President Bush called for the nation to replace 20 percent of gasoline use with ethanol in 10 years.

The government talk is being backed by action and policy. The federal government offers a 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit to ethanol producers and maintains a 54-cent-a-gallon tariff on ethanol imported from Brazil. More than 20 states have so-called renewable portfolio standards, which mandate that utilities derive a fixed percentage of their power from renewable sources. Read More.