In an editorial, USA Today calls the government-backed move to ethanol "one of the dumbest ideas in years."

Got that right.

The paper lays out the familiar arguments, such as the extent of the subsidies and the impact of mandates on food prices. But it also mentions something I was not aware of: 23% of the U.S. corn crop goes to ethanol.

Much of the action is at the federal level, but states make things worse by inflicting their own mandates on the driving populace.