The American Spectator has an interesting article that outlines how Big Business and government can actually be quite friendly—to our disadvantage.

Clearly, ethanol is no magic potion, otherwise why would it need government supports? The special tax breaks amounting to about 52 cents per gallon have given ethanol an advantage over other fuels for decades. The federal protectionist trade policies keeping out foreign ethanol destroy any claim by politicians that our government is encouraging ethanol use for the environment. Nowadays, the federal government is mandating we use ethanol. Now that’s a business model to emulate: make something useless, but make it illegal for people not to buy it.

The article also details how UNOCAL worked with California regulators to require refinery regulations using a process UNOCAL had patented.

CARB’s action, then, drove smaller refiners out of business, costing jobs. CARB also drove up the price of gasoline in California. This is clearly bad for “business” but good for one business, Unocal, who still collects that 5.75 cents per gallon from California drivers even though it has quit the refining business.