A Political 'Fight to the Knife' over Ethanol Comes to Wisconsin

July 15, 2019

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by Chris Hubbuch (Wisconsin State Journal) ... “There’s (a) civil war within the Republican Party,” said Scott Irwin, chairman of agricultural marketing at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “It’s pitting two significant Republican constituencies of the president and neither one is now in a position to issue any kinds of compromises,” Irwin said. “It’s a fight to the knife.”

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Geoff Moody, vice president of government relations for AFPM, said the ad is a response to signs that Trump may be sympathetic to the ethanol industry rhetoric.

“Our goal here is to really show both him and people impacted both sides of the story,” Moody said. “We wanted to take our story to the voters.”

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Refiners say the ethanol mandate threatens jobs. According to the AFPM, the refining industry indirectly supports 8,754 jobs in Wisconsin and has an economic impact of nearly $900 million.

But Wisconsin’s nine ethanol plants can produce more than 530 million gallons a year, making Wisconsin the ninth-largest ethanol-producing state in the country, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

And, according to the Wisconsin Corn Growers Association, ethanol production in Wisconsin generates $4.2 billion in economic activity and supports 19,000 jobs.

“They’re right,” Geoff Cooper, CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, said of the refiners’ group. “It’s a jobs issue — the other way.”

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Wisconsin is home to just one refinery, Husky Energy’s plant in Superior, which has been shut down since a fire in April 2018. Company spokeswoman Kim Guttormson said reconstruction is expected to begin this fall with an anticipated startup in 2021.

The plant’s capacity is below the threshold needed to apply for a waiver from the biofuels mandate. But Guttormson would not say whether it has received an exemption in the past or would seek one when it reopens. The EPA did not respond to a request for a list of refineries that have applied for or received waivers.

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In a report last month, the Government Accountability Office concluded the Renewable Fuel Standard “is likely associated with modest gasoline price increases outside of the Midwest,” but those increases may have diminished.

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Chad Spotts, 38, grows crops on about 3,700 acres in Green County and sells virtually all his corn — 40 to 50 truckloads a month — to the ethanol plant.

Without the plant, Spotts said he’d likely have to haul his crop to a grain terminal on the Illinois River, which would take more time and fuel — and twice as many trucks.

A Republican, Spotts said he voted for Trump in 2016, but didn’t have high hopes.

“I thought it was the lesser of two evils for ag,” he said.

But between the administration’s targeting of ethanol and a trade war Trump started with China that has cratered the soybean market, Spotts isn’t sure he’d vote for Trump again.

“He’s really messed ag up pretty bad,” he said. “There’s way more than just ethanol. Trade deals that aren’t happening. These bailouts. None of us want these bailouts. It’s a joke. If he didn’t mess with our markets, he wouldn’t have to give us this money back.”

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The second-largest of Wisconsin’s nine ethanol plants, Badger State produces about 85 million gallons a year — in addition to byproducts like animal feed, carbon dioxide and corn oil that goes into biodiesel.

CEO Erik Huschitt said the 17-year-old plant, which has more than doubled its original capacity, employs about 50 workers and buys corn grown within a 120-mile radius.

“Our industry is vitally important to the state and the whole nation,” said Huschitt, who is also president of the Wisconsin Biofuels Association. “Industry was built. Investment took place. ... Now we have these games being played. We’re being hurt.”

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Biofuel producers argue waivers for refineries undercut the total amount of biofuel that Congress intended to be used.

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Irwin, who studies agricultural markets, said the waivers have had the biggest impact on biodiesel, but have also likely hindered the growth of higher ethanol blends, like E15 and E85.

“This is not to say that the ethanol industry hasn’t taken some hits,” Irwin said. “Whatever growth would have been possible … the (waivers) have probably eliminated that.” READ MORE

Why America’s tariff-hit farmers still support Trump (New York Post)

Trump escapes blame for ethanol policy hurting corn farmers (Associated Press)

Corn Growers Continue Call for #NoMoreWaivers (AgWired)

CORN CONGRESS DELEGATES URGE PRESIDENT TRUMP TO UPHOLD RFS (National Corn Growers Association)

GROWTH ENERGY LAUNCHES NEW AD CAMPAIGN CRITICIZING EPA (Brownfield Ag News)

Excerpt from New York Post: Yet, despite a flurry of national stories warning that farmers are moving away from Trump because of his trade policies, a recent Gallup survey showed that 53 percent of rural residents approve of the job the president is doing.

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There are 2 million farms in America located on 900 million acres across 50 states that produce nearly $400 billion in agricultural products that are run predominantly (95 percent) by farming families who have often held on to a business that predated the American Civil War.

They are the men and women who not only put food on the table here in the United States but across the globe. The hours are awful, the yearly dividends are uneven, and yet they shy away from complaints.

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Megan Dwyer, 30, is a fourth-generation farmer in Illinois, as well as the wife of a farmer and mother of three. Both she and her husband, Todd, have “off-farm” jobs to help pay the bills and most importantly pay for health care, but make no mistake, farming is her life.

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Two-thirds of their soybeans are exported predominantly to China, so the trade wars have really hit home.

“To me, that’s the biggest concern and scary part is that the longer this drags on, they’re finding a new market and how we get that relationship back is troubling,” she said of Chinese soybean buyers.

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But last week Trump accused Xi of reneging on a promise to buy more US farm products, tweeting: “China is letting us down … Hopefully, they will start again soon.”

Dwyer voted for Trump and despite the uncertain climate, she says she’d vote for him again. Agriculture, she admits, has become “an easy target for retaliation. China knows that this is a big industry and commodity for the US, and so it’s an easy push button back. And it’s unfortunate. But I also don’t feel like I’m blaming the president for my situation,” she said.

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Mississippi has been slammed with wet weather since last fall and William Tabb and his wife, Cala, have certainly felt the brunt of it on the 3,000 acres they farm. Six-hundred of those acres — whose crops include corn, cotton, peanuts, watermelon and pumpkins — are now unusable.

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“On the politics, I totally support what President Trump’s doing with his firm stance on trade. Of course, it’s had a negative impact. But I think that’s dressed up a lot, because there are always going to be market fluctuations,” he said.

Tabb added that farmers are always going to be used as a political football. His solution? Encourage more farmers to run for office.

“That’s a problem though. We tend to be very quiet, put-your-head-down, do-your-job hardworking people by nature,” he said. “Plus, who is going to run the farm?” READ MORE