Subsidy WatchIssue 4, September 2006


  • Biofuels: Driving Subsidies

    Editor's note: The Global Subsidies Initiative is currently in the process of finalizing six country studies on subsidies to liquid biofuels. These studies are slated for release by the end of October 2006. For more information, contact us at info@globalsubsidies.org

    The business of biofuels is booming. Rarely has a product of agriculture seen its market expand by double-digit growth rates year in and year out. But that is exactly what is happening as a result of the phenomenal demand for alternatives to petroleum-derived gasoline and diesel: respectively, bio-ethanol and biodiesel.

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Also in this issue:

Commentary

  • Subsidies are the wrong road to biofuels*

    By Michael O'Hare, Professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley

    Ethanol and other biofuels allow us to use solar energy (collected by plants or even salvaged from trash) instead of fossil fuels just by mixing them with the gasoline and diesel we already use. There is a lot to be said for them, and the government (U.S.) is right to encourage their use.

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  • Alternative energy: beware the hidden costs*

    By Gavin Chua Hearn Yuit and Jardine Wall, Researchers at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs

    Asian governments are caught between an ever-increasing demand for cheap energy to fuel development and an unabating rise in global oil prices. A few South-east Asian governments are feeling the financial pain of costly fuel subsidies and are looking elsewhere for energy sources.

    The hunt for alternative energy sources has led Asian nations to explore biofuel technology, among others. Their widespread use is not yet clearly viable, nor has the cost of implementation been easy to stomach for government budget planners.

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Studies

  • Readings

    CARD study: removing trade distortions on US ethanol

    If the United States cut ethanol tariffs and subsidies, prices would drop in the US as imports rise dramatically, according to a new report by Iowa State University's Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD). Removal of U.S. Ethanol Domestic and Trade Distortions: Impact on U.S.

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Events

  • World Trade Organization Public Forum

    The World Trade Organization's Sixth Annual Public Forum will bring together representatives from governments, parliaments, civil society, the business sector and the media to ponder the theme What WTO for the 21st Century?

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