Cruz win has slain the ethanol beast

Tyler Morning Telegraph ^ | 4 February 2016

[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."

[nascarnation]

RBOB is the gasoline formula that is most commonly traded on the commodity exchanges.

Technically it stands for “reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending”

[Taxman]

Thanks.

Ethanol was a gigantic mistake foisted on an unsuspecting American public by some slick hucksters.

We’ll all be better off when corn is only used for its God intended purpose!

[r_barton]

We'll all be better off when corn is only used for its God intended purpose!

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Corn Nuts! ;-)