USDA: Sugar ethanol not profitable in long run

Thank goodness for the USDA. They were around to tell us that it is cheaper to make ethanol from corn than from sugar.

Making ethanol from sugar could be profitable with the current high demand for the gasoline substitute, but it probably won't be for long, the Agriculture Department said Monday.
[...]
The report concluded that sugarcane and sugar beets were nearly 2 1/2 times as expensive to turn into ethanol as corn.

Now if you've been following the ethanol industry at all, the first question that will pop into your head is probably, "how does Brazil do it, then?" Good question. I'll let the last paragraph of the article explain it:

Some lawmakers from those states have been pushing sugar-to-ethanol, citing the model of Brazil, which produces ethanol made from sugar cane. But Collins noted that Brazil has cheaper sugar than the U.S.

Now, why is that sugar is more expensive here than Brazil? Ah yes, that's right, the lawmakers from "those states" that produce sugar have made sure that we prop up the price of sugar. Sugar producers could be very competitive with corn in the manufacture of ethanol if they just got the government out of the free market.