Politicians pander to ethanol as Iowa caucuses approach

With Iowa caucuses less than a year away, presidential hopefuls from both political parties are busy kissing the ethanol baby.

Democrats hope support for the corn-based gasoline additive helps them regain rural votes, writes Politico Senior Staff Writer Michael Grunwald in a Mar. 5 article.

All announced Democratic candidates who have voiced positions on ethanol favor the Renewable Fuel Standard’s biofuel mandates, Grunwald reports. That’s no change for Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota.

But others seeking the Democratic nomination have ethanol apostasy in their pasts because environmental groups dislike the substance. Once considered carbon-neutral, ethanol has proven deficient as an antidote for climate change.

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont now embraces ethanol for the boost it gives farm communities.

Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, along with former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have found a way to support ethanol as fuel for a transition to electrified transport.

A spokeswoman for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York told Grunwald the senator, who once criticized ethanol, supports the RFS and “the full range of biofuels it is designed to promote.”

Squirming is evident here. Environmentalists seem unimpressed.

“You can’t be for the status quo with ethanol and also be for saving the planet,” declares Environmental Working Group lobbyist Scott Faber in Grunwald’s report.

Planet-saving, of course, is no priority of President Donald Trump, for whom promotion of ethanol was a campaign promise.

His record is mixed. The Environmental Protection Agency eased biofuel mandates for small refiners. And trade acrimony cut ethanol exports to China. But Trump’s repenting.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Mar. 5 sent its final rule authorizing summertime sales of gasoline containing 15% ethanol to the Office of Management and Budget.

This will aggravate ground-level ozone pollution and probably damage gasoline engines.

To Trump, though, a campaign promise is a campaign promise.

And to 2020-minded politicians, Iowa is Iowa, the beating heart of ethanol, where competition turns serious for presidential candidacy.

(From the subscription area of www.ogj.com, posted Mar. 8, 2019. To comment, join the Commentary channel at www.ogj.com/oilandgascommunity.)