THIS year has seen one of the oldest and worst forms of government subsidy vanish, when the US subsidy for ethanol producers expired.
In 1979, when the oil crisis made US voters very unhappy, the Carter administration put in place a subsidy to ensure a domestic production industry could flourish to produce more fuel for US gas-guzzlers.
It's hardly a surprise this flagrant protectionist spending on grain producers didn't get an extension.
The device was costing the US taxpayer a handsome $6 billion a year at a time when the US debt mountain is probing the ionosphere.
Before you rush to the conclusion this has been a rare example of decision-making by the most divisive US Congress in history, think again. Legislators simply did what they have become famous for - nothing.
The law lapsed.
The US$0.45-a-gallon tax credit for oil companies to blend ethanol into gasoline and a corresponding import tariff of $0.54-a-gallon cost US taxpayers up to $6 billion a year.
The subsidy and tariff were designed to give US producers a tax break so the ethanol industry could withstand threats from imported product - most notably from Brazil's sugar-based ethanol, which is a far more environmentally sensitive product than the corn-based US version.
The measures helped boost corn prices and encouraged farmers to replace other crops with corn. The subsidy's environmental virtues were also flawed.
The support was claimed to underpin a low-carbon replacement for fossil fuels, yet the corn ethanol supply chain generates more carbon dioxide than gasoline after taking into account the emissions caused by land clearing for additional production.
But the death of the subsidy barely raised a whimper.
The ethanol industry said thanks and goodbye, as it had long given up any hope for continuance.
Corn ethanol production is viable without the break given current and likely oil prices.
Timing was everything for those advocating no action to prevent the subsidy lapsing.
Market prices didn't flinch at the passing.
In the short-term, at least, corn prices are firm due to the fears that the global crop will be affected by a drought in South America, and the dominance of China in the global market.
Support for the expansion of ethanol demand for grains doesn't end there, however.
The ethanol industry is supported by mandates for an increasing reliance on ethanol-based products for vehicle fuel, which is unlikely to change given the state of oil-dependence of the US. That law underpins growth for the ethanol industry for at least the next 10 years, and helps keep at bay any of the second generation biofuel developments based on waste feedstock.
That's as long as oil prices stay up.
