As Biden Tours Iowa, Farmers Want to Know Where He Stands on Ethanol

by Jarrett Renshaw (Reuters) Joe Biden may have an ethanol problem. The former U.S. vice president has pledged support for advanced biofuels as part of his bid for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. But Biden, who leads the crowded Democratic field in opinion polls in Iowa and nationally, faces lingering questions in the U.S. Farm Belt over his push in 2014 as President Barack Obama’s No. 2 to slash the amount of corn-based ethanol that refiners must blend into the country’s fuel supply.

A federal court struck down the cuts in 2016. But the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has yet to make the biofuel industry whole for the lost gallons despite repeated promises to do so.

Iowa farmers and ethanol producers sent a letter, seen by Reuters, to Biden in 2014 asking him to explain his actions. They also requested a meeting that never materialized, according to those who sought it.

Biden released a 22-page climate policy proposal earlier this month that promised net-zero emissions and a 100 percent clean-energy economy by 2050, largely through taxpayer investments in renewable energy and electric car infrastructure. He promised to refuse campaign contributions from oil and gas executives and strengthen regulation of oil companies.

The proposal’s roughly 10,400 words did not include “ethanol,” although Biden did explicitly support advanced biofuels, which fall under the RFS umbrella.

“By doubling down on our national renewable fuel standard obligations and implementing stronger, bolder commitments that invest in ethanol and biofuels, we can loosen big oil’s grip on our nation while spurring economic growth in areas hard-hit by Trump’s trade war,” said Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates.

“In the general election, Iowa’s largely Republican agricultural community is going to be less inclined to vote for a Democrat if they don’t support ethanol. It’s like, don’t poke the bear and give them a reason to be against you,” Covington said. READ MORE

Excerpt from Iowa Starting Line: Elizabeth Warren took a tour of an ethanol production facility today in Dyersville, Iowa. It was the latest in a series of presidential candidate visits to biofuel facilities in the caucus state, and she used the occasion to point out where she felt Donald Trump’s administration was falling short in delivering for Iowa farmers.

Once inside the ethanol production building, Warren had a conversation with the board operator, monitoring the computer that keeps track of the alcohol-making process. The four-monitor setup was loaded with graphs and information, but Warren easily conversed with the operator about the process and science behind making ethanol.

Warren told reporters afterward that stopping in at facilities like this one is the best way to understand how all the pieces fit together.

“I really like seeing how things are made,” Warren said. “It’s educational, but it also helps me better understand how a place that’s processing corn ethanol is rooted in its community and how it’s also tied to the entire rest of the world. There’s only a certain amount you can get from reading; sometimes you just gotta show up and talk to the people who are doing it.”

Warren noted that understanding the global connections of these industries was important for developing a plan to recover from Trump’s aggressive tariffs.

“Trade policy by tweet doesn’t work,” she said. “When you want to push back on someone like China, it’s very important that we have the maximum power to do that, and that means working with our allies. But at the same moment that the president has increased tariffs against China, he has also increased tariffs against Canada, against the European nations, and against South Korea. We need our allies to work in concert with us.”

Warren warned that trade relationships work both ways, and that America shouldn’t be closing itself off from markets that farmers have built.

“I talked to Iowa farmers who worked hard to develop markets overseas, only to see Trump’s tariffs destroy access to those markets,” Warren explained. “It’s a real fear; those markets are not coming back. Once those buyers have found someplace else to go, it will be very hard to lure them back.”

“I think it’s good to have higher renewable fuel. But I hope while the president is here he will also be talking about the exceptions that he’s been granting over and over and over that are creating real hardship for this industry,” said Warren. “It’s not going to mean nearly as much to ramp up on the E15, if at the same time, all of the refinery exceptions mean that, in fact, there’s no corn ethanol in much of what’s being produced.”

When asked how she would cut down on these waivers if elected president, Warren placed blame on Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler and their ties to the fossil fuel industry.

“I’d probably start out by not having a coal lobbyist as head of the EPA,” Warren said of what her administration would do different. “I’d like to see someone as the head of the EPA who believes in following the rules and is trying to keep our world cleaner, not someone who is running it through the profitability of the fossil fuel industry.” READ MORE