Ted Cruz Was Against Ethanol, Biofuels Before He Was For Them
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In 2014, Cruz offered a Senate measure to phase out the biofuels mandate over five years. That inflamed the ethanol lobby, a group called America's Renewable Future and led by Eric Branstad, the son of Iowa's Republican governor, Terry Branstad. The lobbyists have been trailing Cruz at every campaign stop and handing out anti-Cruz pamphlets.
Cruz now says it's "utter nonsense" to assert that he opposes ethanol. In a Des Moines Register op-ed on Wednesday, he said "I'm fighting for farmers against Washington," explaining that, in his view, eliminating the federal rule would free refiners to put more ethanol into gasoline. The Environmental Protection Agency rule "makes it functionally illegal to sell mixes of gasoline with mixes higher than" 10 percent or 15 percent, he told an Iowa farmer this week. It's not exactly a flip-flop, but it's certainly a stretch. Iowa gas stations routinely sell blends with more than 15 percent ethanol. One in 10 vehicles sold in Iowa can run on fuel containing between 30 percent and 70 percent ethanol.
If Congress lifted the biofuels mandate, refiners wouldn't add a drop of ethanol to their product. They want less ethanol diluting their petroleum product, not more, which is why some of the biggest ethanol opponents are ExxonMobil and other oil industry majors. Their lobby, the American Petroleum Institute, this week said rolling back the renewable-fuel standard was its top priority in 2016.
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Cruz has said that his opposition to the ethanol rule is based on his dislike of Washington mandates and corporate subsidies. It's safe to assume that environmental considerations had nothing to do with it, since he's a self-described climate- change denier. But his end-the-mandate position happens to coincide with that of climate scientists, who tend to think that using ethanol in auto fuel doesn't reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Growing corn, turning it into ethanol and transporting it to refineries uses a lot of fossil fuel.
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-cruz-ethanol-comment-dd82c2c0-b642-11e5-8abc-d09392edc612-20160108-story.html
