For taxpayers seeking presidential candidates who will tackle reforming the Renewable Fuel Standard, Saturday’s Iowa Ag Summit indicated the field might be a bit thin.
1,000 attendees gathered for the event organized by Bruce Rastetter, co-founder of a major corn-ethanol production conglomerate, Hawkeye Energy Holdings (where he remains on the board) and current CEO of the Summit Group, a diverse group of agriculture related projects including wind power production.
Among the gold-level sponsors of the event were Rastetter’s own Summit Group and his personal foundation, along with America’s Renewable Future, a pro-RFS political group helmed by Eric Branstad, son of Iowa’s current governor.
The Ag Summit featured a series of interviews with 2016 presidential hopefuls, and although the website for the event maintains that a bipartisan slate of speakers were invited, in the end nine Republican White House contenders chose to attend without any Democratic counterparts.
According to media reports, there was a wide range of opinions among the speakers regarding the Ag Summit’s central issue: the future of RFS.
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee defended the policy as vital to national security. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie declared he “absolutely” supported the RFS. And former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum stood up for RFS saying that, “The RFS is a mandate. It is not a tax,” which was the same kind of reasoning which saddled Americans with Obamacare’s individual mandate, declared a tax by the Supreme Court.
Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker came down closer to the middle, with both advocating a gradual phase out of the RFS over a period of years.
Bush offered a not particularly committed, “If ethanol can sustain itself.”
Walker likewise qualified his answer, noting, “In general, on any issue, I’m someone who believes in a free and open market…But…right now we don’t have a free and open marketplace… .”
Texas Governor Rick Perry said that he supported RFS elimination, but only in conjunction with elimination of other energy subsidies and mandates, such as those for wind power.
Only Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and former New York Governor George Pataki both declared their opposition to the RFS with no strings attached.
Cruz was the 113th Congress Senate sponsor of the “American Energy Renaissance Act,” S. 2170, which would, among other things, phase out the RFS.
Pataki succinctly summed up the crux of the issue saying, “I honestly don’t think that the federal government should require anybody in America to buy anything, whether it’s renewable fuel or Obamacare. I support ethanol, but I think we should phase out the RFS.” He went on to describe the state policy he helped enact that expanded consumer choice at the pump without increased spending or mandates.
For a group of candidates who ostensibly support free markets, it’s amazing how only a few of them opted to affirm those values when it comes to agriculture policy broadly and the RFS in particular.
The harm imposed by the RFS cuts across party lines and even borders. The RFS increases the cost of food. Consumers have to fill up their gas tanks more often due to lower fuel economy. It damages small engines such as boats, motorcycles, and even chainsaws. And, by repeatedly not issuing updated annual Renewable Volume Obligations, the Environmental Protection Agency has illustrated how utterly broken and unworkable the RFS truly is.
The corn ethanol mandate is out of step with current fuel consumption and it has proved to have far-reaching negative consequences.
Based on performances at the Iowa Ag Summit it’s clear that taxpayers will have to work harder toward persuading policymakers to end the massive wealth transfer from consumers and livestock producers to Big Ethanol. Besides, while a few individuals might want to make defending the RFS a central issue in the upcoming presidential election, for everyone else, 2016 is too far away to wait for change. It’s important for Congress to act now before the RFS grows even less tenable.
Taxpayers need to take matters into their own hands rather than relying on GOP candidates who parse words on defense of the free market and consumer choice. Urge Congress to reform or repeal the RFS today.