Would either candidates energy proposals make much impact on energy costs in the short term?
Neither of the candidate’s plans would have any impact. The one exception would be McCain’s proposal to eliminate tariffs on the importation of Brazilian ethanol. It would immediately reduce the cost of ethanol. Q: How so? A: We have a tariff on imported ethanol from Brazil, which is made from sugar cane. Ethanol here is usually made from corn. Sugar cane ethanol is about eight times more efficient than that made from corn. By removing the tariff, Brazilian ethanol becomes cheaper and will make ethanol-gasoline blends cheaper. It will reduce the use of corn ethanol, which would reduce the demand for corn, which would make corn prices drop slightly. There are many places where gasoline is blended with 10 percent ethanol. It would have a small impact, maybe a few cents, on the cost of blended gasoline. Q: Is there anything in either candidate’s proposal that would be particularly bad for holding down energy costs? A: Most of the proposals are political and they involve subsidies to alter
