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As 2011 gave way to 2012, Congress let tax credits and import protections expire for one of its most pampered industries: ethanol. Now, there’s a good reason for fireworks on New Year’s Eve.

For decades, the motor fuel brewed from corn has enjoyed an uninterrupted run of corporate welfare. That’s finally being curbed. But don’t think Congress has entirely put economic and fiscal realities in front of political calculations. The ethanol industry still has plenty of influence and plenty of government-directed advantages in the market.

Example: Back in the boom time of the mid-2000s, technology entrepreneur Vinod Khosla led an investment group that convinced the Feds to put up $46.3 million in grants and $42 million in loan guarantees for a factory in Georgia that would turn wood pulp into ethanol.

The plant went bust last year. The shuttered facility has just been sold for $5.1 million   to another Khosla-affiliated group, which pledges to use it for a different alternative fuel operation. No wonder Khosla is a billionaire and Uncle Sam is $15 trillion in debt.

Government support for ethanol has consequences beyond lost tax dollars. Nearly all the ethanol produced in the U.S. is brewed from corn that otherwise would go for feeding livestock and people. Thanks to federal subsidies and the government requirement for mixing renewable fuels into gasoline, ethanol factories now use about 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop. That demand raises the price of corn. It also raises the price of cattle, hogs and chickens, which feed on corn, and the cost of grains used as substitute feedstocks.