Autoblog.com posits that the recent increase in gas prices we have been seeing is the result of the fact that Congress let the $0.45-per-gallon ethanol production subsidy to expire at the end of 2011. “[I]ts expiration may have triggered a 4.5-cent increase in cost for gasoline suppliers.” I confess that I have never been entirely convinced that the ethanol requirement was a particularly good idea, and in fact corn ethanol production isn’t exactly the most environmentally friendly process in the world.