2020 Dems Aim to Capitalize on Trump’s Ethanol Policy

by Brian Dabbs (National Journal) Democratic presidential candidates are exploiting a controversial White House ethanol policy to try to generate support among President Trump’s staunchest backers.

The Environmental Protection Agency waived ethanol blending requirements for more than 30 petroleum refiners earlier this month, in a move that continues to infuriate farmers and politicians in Iowa and elsewhere in America’s breadbasket.

So far, the EPA is showing no signs of backing down. And Republican-aligned farm representatives say Democrats now have a big opportunity in agricultural communities already reeling from flooding and Chinese retaliatory tariffs.

However, vows of support for ethanol, a corn-based fuel that is blended into nearly all gasoline sold nationwide, from some Democrats are sparking a backlash from an emboldened environmental Left, which argues that stance is incompatible with aggressive action on climate change.

Environmental groups are fanning out in Iowa to proselytize vehicle electrification. And the ethanol fight, analysts say, could prove critical in Democratic efforts to gain the formidable backing of climate-minded voters in both the primary and general elections.

“Our position is that you can be a climate champion or you can be a supporter of corn ethanol, but you cannot be both,” said Rose Garr, vice president of Waxman Strategies, a firm headed by former House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman.

“There are some fringe groups from out of state that try to pop in every once in a while and stir the pot on biofuels, but they don’t make any headway,” said Jeff Link, a key Democratic political consultant in the state. “They’re not actually getting any support outside of just being on social media and talking to their supporters in California or wherever they’re from.”

A 2017 Agriculture Department report concluded that corn-based ethanol produces 43 percent less life-cycle emissions than gasoline on average. Ethanol needs to meet only a 20 percent decrease threshold in order to qualify for the Renewable Fuel Standard, the program that now mandates 15 billion gallons of ethanol blending annually.

But Garr, along with representatives of other environmental groups like the National Wildlife Federation, argues that ethanol production is only modestly, if at all, more beneficial to the environment than gasoline, pointing to waterway pollution, deforestation, and habitat destruction, as well as the use of fossil fuels to power ethanol plants.

In 2016, Trump carried Iowa by nearly 10 points after the state had voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. But even Republican operatives are signaling potential ethanol-related trouble for Trump in 2020.

“It definitely raises concerns in the farm community, and it creates an opening if the farm economy tanks,” said Steve Grubbs, a Republican operative in Iowa. “If the farm economy is great through 2020, none of this comes up. But that’s a big ‘if,’ considering weather and trade war and the [small-refinery exemption] issue.”

This week, Mark Marquis—the president of Marquis Energy, an Illinois-based ethanol producer and lifelong Republican—pledged to vote for a Democrat over the exemptions.

And Democratic supporters are already laying the groundwork for the general, arguing that Trump’s policies are betraying the rural Americans who turned out in droves to support him.

“This flip-flopping on the exemptions and whether or not he’s really a supporter of ethanol and corn ethanol really exposes him as more of a carnival barker than a populist champion,” Link said. READ MORE

Excerpt from Des Moines Register: Both of the Texans say they would be open to expanding the RFS and the requirements for ethanol production.

“I would be very open to expanding it ... anything that allows us to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in this country as soon as possible, O'Rourke said about the RFS.

“I believe in the RFS. I believe in investing in the renewable fuel industry overall,” Castro said during an interview at the Iowa Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, in Iowa earlier this week.

In contrast to the Texans, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who represents Minnesota where ethanol production also is an issue, said investing in renewables to raise farm incomes, create jobs and expand the rural safety net is part of her plan.

Opposing the small refinery waiver is “an example of a big Midwestern issue I’ve been leading on with Sen. Chuck Grassley for a year now,” Klobuchar told reporters after speaking at the Iowa Federation convention. On ethanol and trade, Trump is treating farmers “like nothing but poker chips in one of his bankrupt casinos.”

A day later, on a call with reporters, Klobuchar said that in her first 100 days in office she would pass a law for year-round E15 sales and strengthen the RFS, reverse Trump’s wholesale granting of waivers and putting on hold any waivers applied for bit not approved. READ MORE