VP Pence Speech to Farmers Falls Flat

by Jacqui Fatka (Feedstuffs) Vice President Mike Pence visited Des Moines, Iowa, on Thursday to re-launch the Trump campaign’s Farmers & Ranchers for Trump. However, to a room full of farmer supporters his message came off more as a campaign speech, and less understanding of the devastation that just swept through the state days prior, to compound an already bad situation in farm country.

Vinton, Iowa farmer Lance Lillibridge said Pence’s speech did say “We put farmers first” but as far as agriculture goes, Lillibridge said there’s a lot of misgivings about this Administration. “We’re at our wit’s end with small refinery waivers and trade wars. And then this COVID thing. Now a huge storm blasts Iowa and steam rolls us.

In the brief exchange with Pence and Lillibridge who serves as a district representative on the Iowa Corn Growers Assn., he said Pence recognized the importance of ethanol. “He looked me in the eyes and said, ‘We need ethanol and need to get rid of these small refinery exemptions.’”

In a letter to the vice president ahead of his arrival, leaders from the Iowa Corn Growers Assn., Iowa Soybean Assn., Iowa Renewable Fuels Assn. and Iowa Biodiesel Board called for President Trump to immediately order Environmental Protection Agency Administration Andrew Wheeler to reject all the nearly 60 new RFS exemption petitions and apply the 10^th Circuit decision to all pending RFS refinery exemption requests.

However, Bardole (Tim Bardole, president of the Iowa Soybean Assn.) said in a private meeting with the vice president prior to his speech with Iowa leaders including Ernst, Pence seemed unaware of what was going on with the waivers when he turned to Ernst and said “didn’t we take care of this.”

Currently the EPA is considering 58 waivers that go back before the court ruling would be in effect.

He definitely implied the Administration would deal with it, Bardole said of the discussion with Pence. “Hopefully that means they won’t be approved.”

The letter stated, “Make no mistake, these issues are being discussed daily around the state and it is often reported back to us that Iowans are saying: ‘If we can’t trust the Trump Administration to do the right thing before the election, then why on Earth would we expect them to treat us fairly after the election.’”

Lillibridge said if the administration were to take action on the SREs before the election “they would have a whole bunch more votes in Iowa.”

Excerpt from Ottumwa Courier: Pence accused the Biden campaign of wanting to “abolish fossil fuels.” He touted Trump administration ag-friendly policies such as the 2018 tax cuts and the rollback of environmental regulations including the Waters of the U.S. rule.

On ethanol, he touted the administration’s agreement to allow year-around sales of 15 percent ethanol blends, which in the past could not be sold in the summertime. “President Trump told the people of Iowa this administration would work to expand ethanol markets and that’s just what we’ve done,” Pence said. “… Promises made, promises kept.”

He didn’t mention the administration’s controversial move to grant waivers to petroleum producers allowing them to blend less ethanol than required under the Renewable Fuel Standard. The waivers have been a sore spot with the ethanol industry as well as Iowa’s Republicans senators.

About a quarter of Iowa’s ethanol plants were shut down at least part of the past three months because of reduced demand during the pandemic.

Democrats, in advance of Pence’s remarks, criticized the Trump-Pence administration’s record on agriculture and its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Indianola farmer Kevin Middleswart said his family had personally felt the impact of the Trump administration’s renewable fuel policies. He said he was delivering grain to a local co-op on a day when one of the area ethanol plants closed unexpectedly.

“And we saw a 30-cent decline in the overnight bid that the co-op was able to pay the farmer – now that’s a 9 percent drop in a 24-hour period,” he said. “You only have to look at my bank account and my tax return to see that, you know, I didn’t think 2020 could get any worse. But I expect that it will.”

Middleswart and former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, former Iowa governor, blamed the ethanol industry’s struggles on the EPA’s granting of waivers allowing petroleum producers to avoid blending ethanol at the levels previously required.

“Well, when it comes to Big Oil and farmers, it’s pretty clear this administration sides with Big Oil,” Vilsack said. “I say that because of the waivers that have been granted that have decimated the capacity of our ethanol industry to continue to prosper.”

Democrats also criticized Pence for appearing in Iowa at an event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, which they portrayed as being pro-Big Oil and an opponent of the Renewable Fuel Standard. READ MORE

Excerpt from Associated Press: A Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman said in an email that Trump had approved the public assistance portion of the governor’s request totaling about $45 million covering 16 counties. That portion of the declaration provides debris removal and repair to government buildings and utilities. He did not, however, approve the individual assistance request for 27 counties that includes $82.7 million for homes destroyed or with major damage and $3.77 billion for agriculture damage to farm land, grain bins and buildings and $100 million for private utilities repair. READ MORE