Cellulosic alcohol has big problems right now because it’s much easier to break down starch in corn than cellulose in switchgrass or bagasse. It’s also alot less efficient to haul from a weight standpoint.
The ‘subsidy’ on ethanol is a blender’s credit. That offsets the cost of removing volatiles like hexane and pentane from gasoline so that the gasahol doesn’t have too much vapor pressure. The only other subsidy I know to producers is the small producer tax credit.
Ethanol is a good oxygenate for gas and does help it burn cleaner. Not to say ethanol doesn’t have problems. It’s not so great a fuel in and of itself. There needs to be a massive rework on how we produce biofuel in this country.
In my opinion butanol is even better as it doesn’t mix as easily with water and much easier to product with a higher BTU content.
or we could simply produce more gasoline and put all the enviro madness to bed...
Unfortunately producing butanol in large quantities is also problematic. Right now, since the envirowakos will not allow drilling ANWAR or gasification of coal, ethanol is the only approach that works economically; despite what the unwashed masses are being led to believe.
Cellulosic will probably not be viable in our lifetimes. Current projected cost to build a commercial sized cellulosic plant is $6.00+ per annual gallon. Not to mention very high operating cost, including the cost of the highly specific enzymes required to prepare the various feedstocks. Guess what groups are behind the ethanol scare stories? If you said big oil and the greenies, you get the prize.