Ethanol FTW?

On Meet the Press last Sunday, Jim Cramer (who I think is better than Jesus) called for the abolishment of our tariffs on Brazilian ethanol. I only heard about this now because he occasionally likes to blow his own horn on his own show, Mad Money. This is a great, simple idea

Instead, Dick Durbin (D) of Illinois disputed this by saying that the tariff promotes development of the domestic ethanol industry, which I guess would be necessary if the goal is energy independence. The most alarming thing about it was that he sounded serious.

Tariffs may help domestic ethanol, but at what expense? First, it promotes a weak industry, which cannot compete by itself in the world economy. Two, it raises the price for ethanol on the rest of the United States, because we could be getting cheaper otherwise. Are a few votes from some dumbass farmers in Illinois worth all that?

If we must use tax money to promote internal development, do subsidies instead. While still bad policy, they are not AS bad as tariffs in that there is a little more room for market forces to take place.

In any case, protectionism never works. If we want to make real, meaningful steps to solving our energy problem in the US, we need elected officials who have taken a few economics classes and have the cojones to stand up to special interest groups and lobbyists.