Should bioethanol production be subsidized in the United States, and also be protected against competition from Brazilian sugar cane-based bioethanol?

Concern  over  politically  controlled  supply  and  finite  availability  of  non-renewable  energy  resources  such  as  crude  oil  and  natural  gas  has  prompted  large  crude    oil-consuming  nations  to  seek  alternate  renewable  energy  sources.  Furthermore,  environmental  concerns  associated  with  carbon  dioxide  and  other  greenhouse  gas  emissions  have  prompted  countries  with  large    agricultural  tracts  of  land  to  seek  and  develop  clean,  renewable  biofuels  that  are  not  only  environmentally  friendly,  but  which  also  contribute  to  sustainable  eco-nomic  growth  and  energy  security.  Developing  biofu-els  does  not  need  to  be  a  panacea,  however,  real  chal-lenges  must  be  overcome  to  prevent  economic  costs  from  exceeding  social  benefits.  For  example,  countries  should  take  extreme  care  in  implementing  national  biofuel policies because in the rush to energy indepen-dence, more pollution may occur, and resources may be misallocated.Biofuels can be described as one of two major types. Bioethanol,  which  has  a  global  production  of  some  50  billion  liters,  and  which  can  be  blended  with  gasoline  (as  is  done  in  China,  Europe  and  the  United  States)  or  used  as  a  substitute  for  gasoline  (as  is  done  in  Brazil).  Note  that  industrial  ethanol  is  a  distillate  or  byproduct  of  crude  oil  and  not  a  non-renewable  energy  source,  and  bioethanol  is  purely  from  plants  (sugarcane,  corn,  etc.)  and  is  a  renewable  energy  resource.  Sugar  cane  provides  the  raw  material  for  nearly  half  of  the  global  bioethanol production, with Brazil being the dominant producer,  followed  far  behind  by  the  Philippines.  The  other  raw  materials  used  for  extracting  bioethanol  are  corn  (maize)  and  wheat.  U.S.  bioethanol  production  is  corn-based,  and  Europe’s  bioethanol  is  wheat  based.  Bioethanol derived from sugar cane will be much more cost and pollution efficient because its single-cycle pro-cessing remains relatively inexpensive, and it consumes less energy than what is produced by burning the result-ing  bioethanol.  In  contrast,  bioethanol  from  corn  and  wheat undergo a more expensive double-stage process. Moreover,  critics  of  corn-based  bioethanol  argue  that  the  energy  used  in  its  production  and  the  correspond-ing pollution it creates may exceed the energy content of corn-based bioethanol. Biodiesel  has  a  global  production  of  some  13  bil-lion  liters,  has  often  been  used  as  a  substitute  for  die-sel, and has mainly been produced in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand, as well as some European countries. The major raw materials used for biodiesel production include soybeans, rapeseed, sunflower seed, and palm oil;  more  recently,  biodiesel  producers  in  India  have " "also  begun  using  plants  such  as  jatropha  and  pon-gamia which are weeds that grow wild along highways and on arid land.Variations  in  climatic  and  soil  conditions  in  Asia  explain  the  wide  range  of  crops  (including  coconut  in  the  Philippines  and  jatropha  and  pongamia  in  India)  used  in  biodiesel  production  in  the  region.  Their  national  goals  also  differ.  Palm  oil  has  been  the  most  energy-efficient  crop  for  biodiesel  production  to  date,  and  Malaysia  exports  90  percent  of  its  output  to  earn  foreign  exchange.  For  India,  where  imports  cover  73  percent  of  its  petroleum  needs,  developing  domestic  biodiesel  can  help  to  achieve  energy  security.  India’s  government  believes  that  some  70  million  hectares  of  wasteland  could  be  targeted  to  grow  biodiesel  crops.  Cultivating these low-maintenance arid land crops could also become a source of income for the rural poor with-out  displacing  prime  agricultural  land.  Their  benefits  are  many  and  significant:  easing  poverty,  reducing  air  pollution, mitigating global warming, and rehabilitating degraded  wasteland.  In  Indonesia,  forests  and  swamps  have  been  stripped  to  make  way  for  palm  plantations, enabling the country to become the largest producer of palm oil in the world.As  the  demand  for  biofuels  (bioethanol  and  biodie-sel)  has  increased,  sugar,  corn  and  palm  oil  prices  have  risen sharply, which in turn has helped exporters at the expense of higher sugar, corn and cooking oil prices to domestic  consumers.  Much  of  East  Asia’s  push  to  bio-fuels  is  based  upon  the  promise  of  huge  shipments  to  Europe.

Answer the below question in case study analysis format.

Should bioethanol production be subsidized in the United States, and also be protected against competition from Brazilian sugar cane-based bioethanol?