(FORTUNE Magazine) – Ethanol made from corn is a cozy little boondoggle that costs taxpayers almost $750 million a year. It will get much worse if the ethanol lobby, spurred by Dwayne Andreas, CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, the giant grain-processing company in Decatur, Illinois, continues to get its way. The group has persuaded the Environmental Protection Agency to propose that ethanol be added to the less-polluting fuels that oil companies must start selling next January 1. Ethanol does make gasoline burn more cleanly, but a close cousin called MTBE, which is made from natural gas, is at least as clean -- and costs half as much. Corn ethanol's clackers say their fuel reduces imports and creates American jobs. Both are dubious claims. Ethanol takes almost as much energy to make (raising, harvesting, and processing the corn) as the product ultimately yields. And if making ethanol creates some jobs in the corn business, how many will it take away from the oil industry, which has lost over 500,000 in the past decade? Big Oil now threatens to sue the EPA. The American Petroleum Institute, which represents 400 oil companies, argues that the EPA mandate is to clear the air, not make social policy of the kind that will help farmers. The environmental agency may even change its mind. But if that happens, don't expect the ethanol crowd to run out of gas. As all Washington knows, the corn lobby ain't easy to shuck.