(UNITED STATES)UU. It puts an end to ethanol subsidies after more than three decades

United States will end this Sunday at more than three decades of subsidies to producers of ethanol that they have cost about $ 6 billion annually to taxpayers, although it is expected that the impact on farmers is negligible.

The Congress began its recess week without extending subsidies that have helped millions of tons of corn have gone into the fuel tanks of motor vehicles rather than become ration for livestock or a myriad of food for humans.

Subsidies for farmers emerged from the touch of attention which received United States when in 1973 Arab oil embargo showed how far the largest economy in the world dependent on imported hydrocarbons.

During the Presidency of Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) there was much enthusiasm in the United States.UU. by alternative energy sources and fuels derived from renewable resources, u000aincluding the production of ethanol from plant materials, especially maize.

Though the arrival at the White House of Republican Ronald Reagan slowed the search for alternative sources of energy, subsidies for ethanol producers were kept.

At the other end of the political spectrum, the defenders of the environment also were opposed to subsidies to producers of ethanol, with the argument that the expansion of crops meant more use of machinery - with diesel engines - and greater use of fertilizers.

"Corn ethanol is extremely dirty," said in a statement Michael Rosenoer, of the Group friends of the Earth, which has held the extinction of subsidies by legislative inaction.

"Corn ethanol causes more pollution that affects the climate than conventional gasoline, and causes deforestation and chemical compounds which, scattered in the plantations, arrive at the" u000a"waterways".

A law of 2005 required the annual production of 28.350 million litres of fuels from renewable resources and production this year reaches only 23.625 million litres. A revision of the law in 2007 has set itself the goal of annual production of 136,000 million litres to 2022.

the law stipulates that at least 56.700 million litres should come from ethanol derived from corn, and the rest must come from other crops used to feed livestock, as grass rod (Panicum virgatum) that generate fewer emissions which pollute the atmosphere.

In almost all United States petrol stations already usual assortment of fuels containing at least 10 percent of ethanol, and most experts believe that the maintenance of this federal requirement is sufficient support for producers, so that subsidies are no longer needed.

The u000aethanol producers expect Congress to no default expiration another grant that supports the retrieved from other plant sources fuel, known as cellulosic ethanol.?This is the ethanol that can be obtained, as well as the grass rod, the wood waste in shipyards and still leaves and reeds of maize. No one sells too cellulosic ethanol still due to the high cost of research, but the industry hopes the prosperity.

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