Look up the word "swamp" in the dictionary – not the ones in Florida that are full of alligators – but the one in Washington, D.C. that the Trump administration promised to drain. The definition will read: "corporate welfare handouts." More specifically: armies of special interest lobbyists roaming Capitol Hill on the lookout for the government to deliver pork, regulatory favoritism and taxpayer-funded handouts to politically powerful groups.

So which special interest group receiving generous handouts takes the crown as this month's king of the swamp? The Big Ethanol lobby for its vigorous defense of the Renewable Fuel Standard program – one of the most absurd and failed political boondoggles that the federal government has ever cooked up.

Here's how Big Ethanol won. When news came out that the Environmental Protection Agency was simply gathering data and looking into modest changes to the amount of ethanol that's forced into the nation's gasoline supply, Big Ethanol threw a political temper tantrum as if their government-subsidized livelihoods depended on it. In a classic display of Washington putting special interests ahead of American consumers and the public interest, Iowa Republicans, Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, threatened to use their powerful committee positions to block key federal appointments.

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Despite its promise to drain the Washington swamp, the Trump administration caved to the politically powerful swamp occupants known as Big Ethanol.

Big Ethanol's political triumph was a win for the Washington political machine, lobbyists and special interests. But hardworking American families are stuck with a failed energy policy that increases fuel costs, hurts our environment and does absolutely nothing to advance the Trump administration's goal of enhancing America's global energy dominance.

Thankfully, more elected officials, leaders in Washington and voters across the political spectrum are saying enough is enough to these handouts. That's exactly why Big Ethanol is ramping up its lobbying efforts and seeking to leverage political influence to preserve its artificial government guaranteed market.

So here's how this mandate works and who specifically benefits. (Spoiler alert: It's not consumers nor our environment.)

Congress – under the dual pretext of reducing America's dependence on foreign oil and carbon emissions – enacted the Renewable Fuel Standard program in 2005 (and doubled down on the mandate in 2007), requiring greater volumes of corn-based ethanol to be blended into the nation's gasoline supply. The law directs the EPA to create an elaborate compliance credit scheme called Renewable Identification Numbers that further tips the scales to the financial benefit of ethanol producers.

There's no question that when government picks winners and losers, we always end up with a lot more and bigger losers than winners, and that's the case this time. The Renewable Fuel Standard's principal winners are corn-producing states like Iowa and Illinois, and ethanol manufacturers who now have a growing government-mandated market for their product.

While this type of corporate welfare benefits a small group of politically connected swamp-dwellers, it leaves millions of consumers – forced to buy ethanol-laced gasoline that reduces fuel mileage and saddles drivers with $13 billion in higher annual fuel costs – holding the bag.

Let's face it. The Renewable Fuel Standard is a failed attempt to advance important energy objectives for America. Period.

Driven by free-market innovations – rather than politicians and lobbyists picking winners and losers – American "petropreneurs" in the private sector unlocked a bonanza of abundant shale resources, making the U.S. more energy secure while delivering significantly lower energy costs to families for gasoline, electricity and natural gas. Our environment is sharply improving, too, with carbon dioxide emissions during the first half of 2017 at their lowest level in 25 years. America's shale revolution has actually probably done more to achieve the twin goals of the Renewable Fuel Standard program – reducing reliance on foreign oil and carbon dioxide emissions – than has the force-feeding of ethanol to American consumers.

Here's the good news: After 2022, Congress' mandate to blend corn ethanol into gasoline will drop to zero. Big Ethanol is already on the war path to extend their massive corporate welfare, but there is hope that Washington will put common sense and the public interest ahead of special interests and failed energy policies.