Free Republic

We all know what the relationship between environmental activists and the oil and gas industry is like. It’s an endless series of demands that we stop using fossil fuels. Reduce emissions. Keep It In The Ground! You know the story. So is there anything that can bring these two, diametrically opposed groups together? Turns out there is, and it’s the EPA’s decision (vocally supported by President Trump) to allow year-round sales of E15 ethanol-blended gasoline. But wait, you’re probably thinking. Don’t environmental activists support biofuels? Well… yes. At least for the most part. But they also know that burning ethanol...

Corny Capitalism: This is one campaign promise we wish President Trump would break. But alas, he just told his EPA to give up any thought of cutting back on the federal government's anti-consumer, anti-environment ethanol mandate. Sad. The story begins in 2005, when President Bush approved the Renewable Fuel Standard program as part of an energy bill, which required oil refiners to blend in predetermined amounts of "biofuels" into their gasoline, starting at 4 billion gallons in 2006. A revised version of the RFS, which Bush signed in 2007, expanding the program, requiring ethanol levels to climb steadily to 36...

- 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...

King Corn has clearly noticed not only Cruz's rise, but his "dangrous" talk about ending the RFS and kicking the legs out from under the government gravy train on ethanol. Now they're striking back. Supporters of the Renewable Fuels Standard, seen as key to the future of Iowa's corn-based ethanol production, are ramping up criticism of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, saying he's the only presidential candidate from both parties who has refused to either tour a biofuels plant or meet with industry lobbyists. Critics of Cruz, whose has been rising in polls in a crowded field of Republican candidates, held...