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In 2007, the U.S. Congress mandated the blending of biofuels such as corn-based ethanol into gasoline. One of the top goals: reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But today, the nation´s ethanol plants produce more than double the climate-damaging pollution, per gallon of fuel production capacity, than the nation´s oil refineries, according to a Reuters analysis of federal data. The average ethanol plant chuffed out 1,187 metric tons of carbon emissions per million gallons of fuel capacity in 2020, the latest year data is available. The average oil refinery, by contrast, produced 533 metric tons of carbon. The ethanol plants´ high emissions...

America's long war on fossil fuels is destroying the famed American prairie. According to a report by the Organic Consumers Association, 95% of the 240 million acres of prairie land that once blanketed the middle of our country, from Texas to North Dakota, already is gone. Only isolated pockets of prairie tall grass, some 35 million acres set aside for soil and wildlife conservation, remain. And that — largely in the Great Plains — is at risk of being destroyed. Among the factors most responsible for this tragic loss of our prairie heritage is the federal renewable fuel standard, a...

Chamber of Commerce operatives may be behind the effort to shift support from Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to billionaire Donald Trump.  One needs to look no further than establishment mouthpiece John Feehery to find evidence.The smoking gun appeared in the New York Times: Trump won’t do long-lasting damage to the G.O.P. coalition,” said John Feehery, a Capitol Hill aide turned lobbyist. “Cruz will." In 2010, Think Progress exposed Feehery for being a paid shill for the Chamber of Commerce. The Hill nor any of television outlets Feehery appears on disclosed the fact that Feehery’s public relations firm, The Feehery Group, counts the U.S. Chamber...

EXETER, N.H.-In Iowa, Ted Cruz is under fire from the highest-ranking Republican in the state over his opposition to the ethanol mandate. But Cruz found a friendlier audience for that position in New Hampshire on Wednesday."There should be no mandates, no subsidies whatsoever for any energy source, whether ethanol or oil and gas or anything else," he said at a town hall here after a voter expressed concern that perhaps he was now in favor of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Stressing that he does not support that ethanol mandate, Cruz continued, "Right now I am the only major candidate in...

The idiot governor of Iowa has come out today saying he wants Ted Cruz defeated because he doesn’t support ethanol subsidies: DES MOINES REGISTER – “Ted Cruz is ahead right now. What we're trying to do is educate the people in the state of Iowa. He is the biggest opponent of renewable fuels. He actually introduced a bill in 2013 to immediately eliminate the Renewable Fuel Standard. He's heavily financed by Big Oil. So we think once Iowans realize that fact, they might find other things attractive but he could be very damaging to our state,” Branstad said.Branstad added that...

Here is a recurring frustration during election season: Candidates who seem attractive before the race begins suddenly sound squishier or change their positions once they hit the campaign trail.On the issue of cronyism, there is one noticeable exception during this year's campaign. In spite of what could be perceived as a political risk, one candidate has remained true to his opposition to (and his commitment to end) the terrible renewable-fuel standard, which requires blending ethanol and other biofuels into the gasoline supply, thereby driving food prices up and creating all sorts of distortions in the energy market: That's Senator Ted...

Spirit Lake, IA – Today, the Cruz campaign responded to the false claims from the ethanol lobby that presidential candidate Ted Cruz has shifted his position on the Renewable Fuel Standard mandate:Cruz has consistently supported a five-year phase out of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Cruz first introduced the five-year phase out in 2014.Cruz publicly called for the phase out at the Iowa Ag summit last March: "But Cruz, who has called for phasing out the RFS program over five years, said Americans are fed up with “career politicians” who pander to voters, especially in places like Iowa, with its outsized...

With some hasty blogging--and exacerbated by an Iowan's mistaken assertion about the ethanol mandate, Ted Cruz's shrewd answering, and the ethanol lobby's odd response--I contributed to some confusion about Ted Cruz's views on the ethanol mandate. (For the sake of candor, my original [probably misleading] post is at the bottom of this article.) Sen. Ted Cruz in 2013 co-sponsored the "Renewable Fuel Standard Repeal Act," which would immediately repeal the ethanol mandate. In 2014, he introduced a broad energy bill that would wind down the mandate over five years, slashing the federally mandated volume of renewable fuels (including corn ethanol)...

It’s the ethanol, Sherlock....For if he wins Iowa, he will have defeated the ethanol lobby. And beating Big Corn on its home turf is what can propel him to a win in New Hampshire.People in New Hampshire hate ethanol. Ethanol is corrosive, it destroys engines. If ethanol-laced gasoline is more than a couple months old, it can't be used in high performance small engines. It is hydroscopic, attracting water, another problem with performance.A lot of guys have a personal problem with ethanol. Go to any tavern in New Hampshire and you'll hear an earful. There's nothing worse than getting all rigged out with your chain saw, ready to...

Conventional wisdom says that you cannot win Iowa without kissing the pinky ring of the Iowa corn lobby and pledging your fealty to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the anti-science policy which is bad for the environment, fuel mileage, and America at large. Iowa’s traditional role as the first Presidential contest for both parties basically ensures that anyone with even a whiff of Presidential ambition has largely taken a pass at criticizing a policy which is a bad idea for everyone except an extremely well-connected group of corn farmer lobbyists.Ted Cruz has been challenging all that with his current Presidential...

...Senator Ted Cruz, already under attack in Iowa for opposing government support for ethanol, has won the support of an out-of-state conservative leader, Ken Cuccinelli II, who on Tuesday aimed an unusually blistering attack on "Big Corn"......"The Governor of Iowa is a Big Corn cheerleader, and his son is running a super PAC hitting Cruz for not bowing to worship Big Corn..." wrote Mr. Cucinelli, the former attorney general of Virginia.He described an agricultural forum in Iowa early in the year attended by presidential hopefuls as a "Big corn kiss up confab."Mr. Cruz is leading Iowa polls of likely Republican...

I take a more benign view than most conservatives of some of the dreadful budget compromises of the recent omnibus, because spending packages are always going to contain a lot of give and take. Better to look at the long game, to judge if any small victories or compromises may make possible better outcomes down the road. Such small details are as unsatisfying as cold peas, and often don't pan out, or get lost in the shuffle. But I think expecting Paul Ryan to turn around Congress in three months was more than a but unrealistic.Much worse in my mind...

- Every Republican who has won the Iowa caucuses since 1980 has strongly backed ethanol....- Enter Ted Cruz. Insiders agree the Texas senator is the current frontrunner going into the Feb. 1 caucuses. He's been unabashedly critical of federal support for ethanol, including the RFS, which he sees as market-distorting corporate welfare.- Recognizing he poses an existential threat to the special benefits it receives from the government, the corn lobby is going all in to stop Cruz in Iowa.....- But what if they aren't able to stop him?- Here's the bottom line: If Cruz wins Iowa, it could become untenable...

Iowa voters are supposed to love the ethanol subsidy and hate immigration. So why are they embracing a candidate who disagrees with both of these positions?With the caucuses closing in fast, something very interesting is happening in Iowa.Long considered by many in the GOP (including yours truly) to be a hotbed of unbending support for the irrational ethanol subsidy and unyielding opposition to anything that might be perceived as "amnesty" for unauthorized immigrants, Iowa is proving some of its critics wrong. Based on some present trends, it looks as though Sen. Ted Cruz could win the caucuses there-and if he...

Ted Cruz's need to keep women barefoot and pregnant -- among other of his draconian politicies -- turned me off his presidential campaign long ago. But whatever you say about the Texas senator, the man has a king-size backbone. Ted Cruz in Iowa Cruz, fearless attack dog for ending the ethanol mandate in the U.S. gasoline supply, stayed true to his principles -- yes, even while campaigning in the belly of beast, in the middle of the Hawkeye State, corn-based ethanol capitol of the world.And there it was, just hours after the Obama administration released its (failed) plans to boost...

The fiscal impact of the ethanol mandate is huge — Michaels estimated it totals “billions, easily” in direct and indirect money — but it has come under attack by liberals as well as conservatives and appears to have lost some of its clout on Capitol Hill. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency — which administers the Renewable Fuel Standard — is considering a cut to the amount of ethanol blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. ... a growing number of environmentalists want the ethanol requirement eliminated, too. ... In 2007, Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law...

The Obama administration on Friday rebuffed requests by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and the leaders of several other states to waive a federal renewable fuel mandate that requires ethanol to be blended into the nation's gasoline supply. In rejecting the waiver requests, the Environmental Protection Agency effectively disagreed with the states' concerns that the mandate was spiking corn demand and prices following a drought that devastated crops in the Midwest. The EPA concluded the Renewable Fuel Standard would not cause "severe economic harm" to states and regions. "We recognize that this year's drought has created hardship in some sectors of...

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which mandated a steep rise in domestic ethanol production, is causing unforeseen negative consequences for food prices while failing to live up to the desired gasoline results and other expectations, concludes a Texas A&M University research team headed by an economics professor who studies energy issues.James Griffin James M. Griffin, director of the Mosbacher Institute for Trade, Economics & Public Policy, which is part of Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service, and Mauricio Cifuentes Soto, a graduate student assisting him, say in their report that the goal of...

6/10/2008 8:47:00 AM Farm-Belt Voters Favor Eliminating Or Scaling Back Corn Ethanol Mandate Washington, DC - Most Americans - including those in the Farm Belt - want Congress to reduce or eliminate the corn ethanol mandate, according to a new poll released today by the National Center for Public Policy Research. The poll, published by the Public Opinion and Policy Center of the National Center for Public Policy Research, found that 41% of Americans want Congress to repeal the corn ethanol mandate entirely, while 35% want Congress to repeal the law it passed last December to double it. Just 6%...