Posted on 02/04/2016 6:00:21 PM PST by justlittleoleme
If Texas Sen. Ted Cruz does nothing else in the 2016 Republican primary, he's at least done this - he has laid low the ethanol lobby. The once-sacrosanct Renewable Fuel Standards, which mandate the use of dirty, inefficient ethanol in our gasoline, are no longer invulnerable.
"The ethanol lobby is a paper tiger, and Ted Cruz just tore it to shreds," wrote Tim Carney for the Washington Examiner. "Cruz, the country's most famous enemy of the federal ethanol mandate, just won Iowa, winning more votes than any person in the history of the caucuses. Cruz thus busted the myth that you can't mess with the ethanol lobby and still win Iowa."
It's a shame so many other presidential candidates refused to stand up to the ethanol lobby. The RFS, signed into law by President George W. Bush, are inarguably harmful to everyone - except Iowa corn farmers.
"The 'corn boom' RFS created has impacted over 5 million acres of land once set aside for conservation," pointed out The Federalist. "Landowners have filled in wetlands and have sprayed billions of pounds of fertilizer to facilitate the demand for corn to fulfill gas ethanol requirements. As a result, rivers have been contaminated and the habitat of waterfowl and other wildlife has been damaged."
Perhaps even more importantly, "RFS has not reduced carbon emissions - one of the primary objectives of the policy. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin found that the corn boom has released as much carbon dioxide as 34 coal power plants in one year. It turns out ethanol is not carbon-neutral, as promised, and it actually worsens gas mileage, making cars less fuel-efficient and worse for the environment."
The Congressional Budget Office warns that the RFS could cause fuel prices to increase from 13 to 26 cents per gallon by 2017.
"It's not just prices at the gas pump and costs at the repair shop increasing because of RFS - it's prices at the grocery store, too," The Federalist notes. "Anything corn goes into is more expensive because of the RFS. Purdue University researchers found that repealing the RFS would cause food prices to fall 13 percent overall. In 2012, the average U.S. family of four faced a $2,000 increase in food costs due to the higher corn prices RFS has caused."
So Cruz's victory was important. It also wasn't supposed to happen. The ethanol lobby went after him hard.
"Gov. Terry Branstad went on a jihad against Cruz, attacking him as 'the biggest opponent of renewable fuels,'" Carney reported. "Branstad took to Fox News the morning before the caucuses to pound Cruz. America's Renewable Future, the ethanol lobby headed by Gov. Branstad's son Eric, spent $300,000 this election, according to campaign finance filings, basically all of it against Ted Cruz. They spent on mailers, on robo calls, on radio ads and on print ads."
Yet Cruz won more votes than anyone in Iowa caucus history.
And as Carney added, "Cruz's win also sends a message to other corporate welfare lobbies: You're next."
“When is he going to re-introduce and pass the bill?”
Repeating idiocy does not mean it is not idiocy.
As to introducing a bill, Can you read post 28 or does someone has to read it for you? Guess you need to be treated like a child as you are displaying the symptoms on one.
As for passing a bill, there are 100 Senators and he gets one vote. It requires more than one vote to pass legislation in the Senate, then it needs to go through the House then the President.
“The way God intended.”
God also saw the need for man to have energy, and gave us the truly remarkable substance called petroleum, abundant around the earth and ours for the taking. As natural as anything else on earth.
Yes, and this was just a very small part of “his story.” As one who worried at the time that he wouldn't be elected and reelected because the alternatives were so horrendous, through the prism of time, I've come to understand that he was not all that he claimed to be. The mess in the ME should all be laid at his feet. Through his acts, we killed off the dictators that managed to keep the ME under some semblance of control, and in so doing he caused us to spend money we didn't really have and to put thousands of our young men and women in the ground. For those reasons, he has my undying enmity.
Paul Ryan can stop some things from coming to a vote with enough GOP farmers and Democrats.
Wow....for all his bluster, Trump's followers are sure crybaby sore losers. Put on the big boy pants.
Hank
It’s the truth .. accept it
You are not making any sense again ...
Imagine that. Cruz goes to the ethanol state, is the only candidate to say he is going to kill the ethanol subsidies; Trump says he will raise the ethanol standards so Iowans can receive more money and produce more, but Cruz wins. Very telling about the two men.
Not one person has claimed to have voted for Cruz that intended to vote for Carson before hand — 4 days, not even one example. It is a lie being pushed by Trumpaholics.
Carson was polling at 8, and got 9.
Trump was polling at 29 and got 24.
Cruz was polling at 23 and got 27.
Funny how Carson getting more one pct more votes than expected somehow resulted in five more points for Cruz and five less points for Trump by Cruz "stealing" ten times as many votes from Carson that he never lost. You must be a Common Core Math person.
And pray tell, who is it that "forced" this apology? Or does reality have no meaning for you?
I little bit exaggerated maybe? Not a thing has changed, or will change, with our energy policy.
Your boy is a sore-loser crybaby. Looks like you are, too.
Accept it.
Hank
I agree especially since it doesn’t go into full effect for 5 years. He’ll give some excuse.
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Funny stuff as usual you boy Trunpee pandered to the Ethanol lobby but then again he has been a crony capitalist is whole life it probably the only issue he hasn’t flipped flopped on.
Cruz had the stones and take a position that was correct even if it cost him in an state he desperately needed.
Cutting off the subsidy would have been unfair to people who had built business models based on the gov subsidies. Supporting a phase out allows businesses time to change their business model.
I could give a care about the ethanol. It is so far down the list of my issues you could not imagine. You are bashing me for giving facts. Until you understand the program that is being proposed, you should really just hold your tongue.
I could give a care about the ethanol. It is so far down the list of my issues you could not imagine. You are bashing me for giving facts. Until you understand the program that is being proposed, you should really just hold your tongue.
Did he apologize or not ?
You have to give him credit for that.
But he is no outsider!
The Kochs gave money to Cruz, Rubio, Bush. Now someone tell me again that Teds an outsider!
Cruzs presidential campaign received more money $30,200 from known members of the Koch brothers political network than any other candidate, according to an analysis by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) of Federal Election Commission (FEC) reports.
Other Koch donations
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cid=N00033085&cycle=2014&type=I&newMem=N&recs=100
Not only did Trump not take the conservative, common sense position on ethanol, he wants to go even further left with it by increasing the amount in fuel.
Increased ethanol levels mean increased subsidies.
Is that what we want?
Not only did Cruz do the right thing, he won doing so.
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