Nelson & Rubio vote together to attempt to end three decade long subsidy for ethanol

On the Senate floor Thursday, Florida's two U.S. Senators, Democrat Bill Nelson and Republican Marco Rubio, joined together in an overwhelming vote to kill the $6 billion annual federal subsidy for the corn ethanol industry.

This isn't the end of the subsidies, not yet. The House is expected to reject the vote and the White House opposes the measure. But the message is still fairly clear: the era of big taxpayer support for biofuels is ending.

As John McCain said, "This industry has been collecting corporate welfare for far, far too long."

This article appears in Jun 16-22, 2011.