How it's done in Canada - subsidies

Very good call by the Canadian Government -- from the Toronto Globe and Mail:

Ottawa ending biofuels subsidy over unfulfilled industry promises
The Conservative government is formally shutting down its controversial biofuels subsidy program, saying companies producing biodiesel have failed to meet ambitious production targets.

In a letter sent Thursday, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver rejected calls from the industry to provide new money under Ottawa�s ecoEnergy program to ethanol or biodiesel firms looking to build plants. Existing commitments, however, will be met until the program expires in 2017. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Globe and Mail.

�The government will not redesign or reopen the ecoEnergy for biofuels programs to new applicants,� Mr. Oliver said. �During this time of fiscal restraint and challenging global fiscal realities, our government has committed to ensuring that we balance our budget.�

Ottawa has already paid out $672-million to companies that have built plants to make grain-based ethanol and biodiesel, which has created 800 jobs and a new market for farmers. It expects to spend $1-billion on biofuels subsidies when the last payments are made in 2017, though the program was initially promoted as a $1.5-billion effort.

The government stopped taking applications under the program in 2010, but several companies have announced plans to build new biodiesel plants and the industry has been urging the government since then to continue the subsidy program. In November, 2011, U.S. agrifood giant Archer Daniels Midland announced plans to build a 265-million-litre-a-year biodiesel plant in Lloydminster, Alta., next to its canola crushing plant.

Archer Daniels Midland is not making money from selling Ethanol, it is making its money from the subsidies. For more on ADM, check out "Rats in the Grain" The movie is OK but it totally re-writes the character of the key person. Get the book from your library...