Trump in Iowa Touts Ethanol while Bashing Biden

June 12, 2019

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by Miranda Green (The Hill) President Trump gave rallygoers in Iowa on Tuesday a sign of what might come in 2020, speaking to them about ethanol while taking hard jabs at Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Speaking in Council Bluffs, Iowa, to celebrate his administration’s decision to allow 15 percent of ethanol to be mixed into gasoline in the hot summer months, Trump in one breath called the move an American success story while also blasting Biden for failing to embrace the fuel under former President Obama.

"America must never be held hostage to foreign suppliers of energy as we have under Sleepy Joe," Trump told the crowd gathered at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, using his preferred nickname for the former vice president.

"Under the previous administration, our leaders rejected American energy and they rejected ethanol. They imposed radical restrictions on our farmers, refused to allow talk of E-15 during the busiest driving time of the year," Trump said, nodding to both Biden and Obama. "How ridiculous was that?"

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“You were taken advantage of by stupidity, by incompetence, by people who don’t care. You were treated very badly, but you aren’t being treated badly anymore.” he said.

The president called his divisive decision a win for American energy.

“More American ethanol production means less dependence on foreign supplies,” Trump told the crowd. “Quite simply, it means more energy. And what can be wrong with that? And it’s very good energy.” READ MORE

Trump's Iowa trip emboldens ethanol advocates (E&E News)

President Trump Visits RFA Member Site (Renewable Fuels Association; WATCH VIDEO)

Remarks by President Trump on Renewable Energy at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy on June 11, 2019 (White House)

President Trump Delivers Remarks on Renewable Energy (White House; WATCH VIDEO)

Trump seeks support of farmers hurt by trade war as Dems pile on (Politico)

Trump uses ethanol against Biden in Iowa (Washington Examiner)

Trump says E15 expansion will curb US oil import dependence (S&P Global Platts)

As Trump touts ethanol growth, farmers fear foreign tariffs (WOWT)

Trump signs executive order on E15 at ethanol plant in Council Bluffs (WOWT)

Editorial by Sens Charles "Chuck" Grassley and Joni Ernst, and Gov Kim Reynolds: Trump Kept His Promise to Farmers on Year-Round Ethanol (River Cities Reader)

Behind the Scenes with President Trump at Iowa Ethanol Plant (AgWired.com)

RFA provides behind-the-scenes information on Trump’s SIRE tour (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Best thing that ever happened to farmers? Not quite (The Gazette)

OUR OPINION: RFS waivers, China trade war remain farm country concerns (Sioux City Journal)

ETHANOL PRODUCTION JUMPS AFTER E15 CONFIRMATION (Brownfield Ag News)

President Trump Visits SIRE Ethanol Plant (AgNewsWire)

Biofuels an important part of Iowa ag economy (Times-Republican)

U.S. Farmers Use Trump Visit to Chide Administration (Bloomberg; includes VIDEO)

Ethanol Report on Presidential Visit (Energy.AgWired.com; includes AUDIO)

A Historic Day for the Ethanol Industry (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Excerpts from Politico: The president sought to draw a contrast between his administration and those of his predecessors — including Biden, by extension. “Past administrations did nothing while the farm income declined,” Trump said at one point. “But we are turning it all around and we’ve turned it all around and wait until you see the real numbers start coming in when it all comes together.”

In fact, farmers are being battered by some of their worst conditions in decades in part due to Trump’s trade war that has sent agricultural exports plummeting. Biden, speaking in the state Tuesday, said “there are a heck of a lot of Iowans being crushed by his tariffs” who would like to see details of a secret deal Trump says he struck with Mexico.

With fear rippling through the state’s agriculture sector, Trump used the speech, which was staged in an ethanol facility, to tick off a list of things he's doing for Iowa, from overturning regulations to assisting the state with recent flooding to signing an executive order to speed up reviews of biotechnology needed by farmers.

He also reminded voters of his recent decision to allow year-round sales of E15 fuel, a boon to the state’s powerful corn industry. “I fought very hard for ethanol,” Trump said, adding that E15 sales are projected to double this year as a result of his policy change.

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Trump encouraged Iowans to pressure House Democrats to approve the new U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal. “You have to get out and push the Democrats to put it up because they’d rather see our country do badly than give us a victory,” he said.

Farmers remain a key constituency for Trump, especially in a crucial state like Iowa, which he carried by nine points in 2016. So far, farmers’ concerns about Trump’s trade policies haven’t translated into a major deterioration of support for Trump among Republicans here. Polls show that the vast majority of Iowa Republicans still support the president. But some White House officials and other allies of the president privately worry that goodwill won’t last forever, especially if the trade dispute between China and the United States isn’t resolved soon. They’ve taken steps to appease U.S. farmers, sending billions of dollars in aide to farmers.

Yet Trump shows no signs of backing down from his trade agenda. Though the administration reached an agreement with Mexico that averted a new round of stiff tariffs on the United States’ southern neighbor, Trump this week again reiterated his preference for hitting other nations — adversaries and allies alike — with duties in order to get what he wants. And he signaled confidence in his trade strategy with China despite widespread concerns in the agriculture sector, insisting that it's paying off for the United States.

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Over and over again, Trump has suggested that tariffs are the most important lever to extract concessions from his negotiating powers. “If we didn’t have tariffs, we wouldn’t have made a deal with Mexico,” Trump said Monday as he promoted an agreement with Mexico to crack down on illegal immigration in exchange for averting the tariffs.

That approach has some Iowa farmers terrified.

“The trade and tariff issue is huge. There’s no other way to say it,” said David Oman, an Iowa consultant who served as chief of staff to two of the state’s Republican governor, Terry Branstad and Robert Ray.

Oman added that farmers, who are already struggling after bad weather delayed their planting season, are in wait-and-see mode, hoping that Trump can reach a deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping to ease trade tensions.

“People are nervous and they’re looking for some resolution,” he said. “The concern is palpable.”

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The president’s divisive trade policies have tested the state’s political leaders, prompting Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, both Republicans, to push back, while simultaneously trying to maintain good relationships with the White House. Ernst traveled with Trump on Air Force One on Tuesday. Grassley, meanwhile, said earlier Tuesday he plans to move forward with legislation that would put a check on Trump’s trade powers, arguing that Congress has ceded too much authority on the issue to the executive branch.

“This is not about Trump. It’s about the balancing of power,” Grassley told reporters, being careful not to directly criticize the president.

Iowa Republican leaders maintain that the state’s farmers are willing to absorb the economic fallout from Trump’s tariffs — at least for now — if it means getting a beneficial deal with China.

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“While you would think they might be angry because it affects them and it impacts their bottom line, most farmers are very pragmatic and they understand that this is short-term sacrifice for long-term gain,” said Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican member of the state Senate.

Others said farmers are likely to stick with Trump until a better alternative presents itself. For now, some farmers remain uncertain about the Democratic candidates, unsure about what they’d get out of a change in leadership.

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The drop in commodity prices comes on top of a five-year decline in farm income, which is about 50 percent lower than it was in 2013. The trade headaches have been exacerbated by severe flooding in the Midwest in recent months. READ MORE

Excerpt from Washington Examiner: Biden has been struggling to overcome the Obama administration's shaky relationship with ethanol in trying to gain favor in Iowa. Although the administration did support a market for ethanol in its first term, it later gave into the oil lobby in cutting the amount of ethanol refiners are required by law to blend each year.

Although Trump used inaccurate hyperbole in saying that the Obama administration made the U.S. hostage to foreign suppliers — energy imports actually dipped during the Obama administration — his rhetoric appealed to ethanol industry lobbyists.

Monte Shaw, president and CEO of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, said Trump is not exaggerating on the point about restrictions on 15% ethanol blends.

His group and many others had asked the Obama administration for six years to remove the restriction on 15% ethanol blends, Shaw told the Washington Examiner. “They said no," Shaw said. "So Trump has [a] legit point on that.”

Shaw said the Obama administration did take steps to increase the market for ethanol, but things began to slip during the administration's second term in 2014. More restrictions were placed on 15% ethanol fuel, and the Environmental Protection Agency's annual blending targets for ethanol were cut over fears drummed up by the oil industry.

Biden had influenced the ethanol cuts as a way to protect refiners in his home state of Delaware, Reuters reported.

“Under the previous administration, our leaders rejected American energy and they rejected ethanol,” Trump said Tuesday while touting his EPA's recent rule changes. READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: Following the tour, Trump gave a speech to approximately 1,000 attendees, including lots of local farmers and ethanol supporters, and finished by signing an executive order that directs federal agencies to streamline the process for approving new biotech traits. READ MORE

Excerpt from The Gazette: “The best thing that ever happened to the farmers is me. … The farmers are my best friends. Nobody has treated the farmers better than Donald Trump,” Trump told a group of White House reporters before his Iowa events on Tuesday.

We suspect most Iowa farmers would be surprised to hear that the Trump agenda is the “best thing that ever happened” to the agriculture industry. The truth is, his protectionist trade policies have imposed heavy burdens on producers already struggling with weak commodity prices.

Tariffs Hurt the Heartland, a pro-trade group, estimates Trump’s tariffs have cost Iowans some $110 million so far. That doesn’t account for future lost income because foreign trade partners are finding new sellers.

Additionally, the ethanol industry is frustrated at the Trump administration for approving Renewable Fuel Standard waivers to refineries, which cuts demand for ethanol.

Frustratingly, Trump’s top supporters in Iowa tend to shy away from calling out the bad parts of the Trump agenda.

In a guest column published in the Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil this week, Iowa’s trio of GOP standard-bearers — U.S. Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Rey-nolds — delivered glowing praise to the president, with no mention of trade policy or ethanol waivers.

Expanded E15 is a step forward for Iowa’s economy, but tariffs and ethanol waivers have been big leaps backward. If Trump wants to be a champion for farmers, he will pursue free trade and enforce the Renewable Fuel Standard. READ MORE

Excerpt from Sioux City Journal: However, we temper our enthusiasm for the decision with concern about continued exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard granted by the EPA to refineries and the continued Trump administration trade war with China. With those challenges to agriculture states unresolved, we find it hard to agree with President Trump's assessment of himself in Iowa on Tuesday as "the best thing that ever happened to farmers."

Consider:

* The federal RFS began with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and was expanded and extended by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. It requires transportation fuel sold in the U.S. be blended with a minimum volume of renewable fuels. However, 50 waivers amounting to more than 2.5 billion gallons of ethanol volume were granted to refineries by the EPA over the last two years; more waiver requests await EPA decisions today.

"... as we have repeatedly cautioned, EPA’s ongoing mismanagement of the RFS through blanket small refinery exemptions (SREs) needs to stop,” American Coalition for Ethanol Chief Executive Officer Brian Jennings said in an AgWeb story following the EPA's E15 decision. “The net effect of E15 year-round with 2.61 billion gallons worth of SREs that aren’t reallocated means we’re still in the hole when it comes to ethanol demand through the RFS. EPA is currently sitting on nearly 40 requests for refinery waivers from the 2018 compliance year. We discourage EPA from erasing any benefit of today’s rule by granting more waivers at a time when rural America can least afford it.”

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* Agriculture continues to bear a heavy burden in the U.S.-China trade dispute Americans have watched escalate since the first tariffs were imposed more than a year ago. According to the USDA, sales of U.S. farm commodities to China (Iowa is the second-largest exporter of ag products, behind only California, and leads the nation in soybean, corn and pork exports; China is the world's second-largest importer of U.S. ag products) fell from more than $20 billion in fiscal 2017 to $16.3 billion in fiscal 2018 and are forecast to decline even more, to $9 billion, in this fiscal year. A recent Iowa State University report said Iowa farmers could lose up to $2.2 billion from U.S. trade wars with China and other nations, producing a ripple effect on state tax receipts, jobs and other industries. On Monday, President Trump said he would raise tariffs on Chinese imports further unless he makes progress in trade talks he plans to have with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit later this month (the Chinese, by the way, have confirmed no such meeting). READ MORE