Santorum Tours Biodiesel Facility during Farley Visit

by William Garbe (TH Online) GOP presidential hopeful listens to Western Dubuque Biodiesel general manager explain regulatory issues facing his business. Republican presidential hopeful Rick Santorum received an informal primer in renewable fuels Monday in Farley.

Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, spent most of his time at Western Dubuque Biodiesel listening to General Manager Tom Brooks explain regulatory issues facing his business. The plant produces biodiesel using agricultural products such as soybean oil, animal fats and recycled cooking oil. Biodiesel is among the products mandated to a certain level of production nationally in the Renewable Fuel Standard.

"(I hope) he understands that the (federal Renewable Fuel Standard) is more than just one type of fuel and that our impediments to market are definitely affected by the Legislature and the things that Congress does or doesn't do," Brooks said. "He said he felt like he was educated today, so hopefully, he can put it into practice."

Santorum was sympathetic to Brooks' position on the Renewable Fuel Standard and the impediments to the market he faces. Santorum said he was particularly concerned by the foreign import of biodiesel from places such as South America.

"You have this really interesting dynamic where you have an administration that says that they are for preserving the environment and preserving the Amazon, yet if you look at their policies with respect to biodiesel, it's incentivizing production in places that are really, environmentally, really suspect," Santorum said. "You're making it harder for our domestic manufacturers and producers to be competitive." READ MORE