By all accounts, the ethanol industry is overheated, and the bubble is poised to burst. But rather than let the market correct itself, the industry is seeking a bailout from the firm of Obama, Harkin, Dorgan, Lugar & Biden. The senators have introduced a bill that would double the amount of renewable fuel that the federal government requires petroleum companies to mix with gasoline. They are rushing the bill out for an industry that, according to a trade group, the Renewable Fuels Association, has at least 65 new ethanol distilleries under construction at the moment and will soon be producing more than 11 billion gallons of ethanol a year.

This glut is pushing prices down on the supply side, while high prices on corn — the main commodity needed for ethanol production — are pinching the industry’s bottom line. So the only thing that could prevent an ethanol slump is an instant and unlikely surge in demand. No one in his or her right mind would ordinarily mix that much ethanol with gasoline. So Messrs. Obama, Harkin, Dorgan, Lugar & Biden are trying to get the Congress to wave its magic wand.

The Biofuels Security Act of 2007 would enlarge the artificial market for ethanol by, among other provisions, raising the Renewable Fuel Standard that mandates how much ethanol oil refineries must mix in with their fuel product every year. That’s good for the industry, but doesn’t make much sense for the rest of us.

Ethanol is already one of the most coddled and protected industries in America. Before even pulling into the filling station American taxpayers have already paid between $1.04 and $1.45 in government subsidies for each gallon of ethanol, according to a report from the Global Subsidies Initiative. That adds up to an annual total of about $6 billion.

Proponents of these measures insist that the goal is to get the fledgling industry on its feet. But it has been almost 30 years since the government started propping up the ethanol industry, and the prop has become a crutch. Now ethanol advocates are trying to put it over that climate change ought to be a consideration, even though corn’s status as a “green” fuel is, according to skeptics on both ends of the political spectrum, dubious at best. So much politically popular pork is just too hard for Congress to pass up.