Sen. Jim Talent, the Missouri Republican, recently proposed—and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources approved—a mandate for 8 billion gallons of ethanol production per year

Sen. Jim Talent, the Missouri Republican, recently proposed--and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources approved--a mandate for 8 billion gallons of ethanol production per year. Because ethanol is federally subsidized, this exercise in central planning would cost taxpayers $2.3 billion annually.

It would also raise prices for corn--from which ethanol is made--and gasoline, costing American consumers additional billions each year. The proposed mandate would do almost nothing to dent the country's dependence on Middle Eastern oil--a supposed goal of ethanol's backers, whose high-minded concern for national security is somewhat vitiated by their insistence on maintaining protectionist quotas against countries that make cheaper ethanol than the U.S. Some researchers even say it takes more energy to produce a gallon of ethanol than that gallon yields when burned. Senator Talent argues that renewable fuels are where the market is headed anyway. We're not convinced. But if he's right, the market hardly needs a big assist from the taxpayers.

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