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U.S. farmers, lawmakers dial up pressure on Trump over biofuel policy
#1
Yet the farmers will still vote for him because he is not one of those Kenyans.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-b...SKCN1VB2EF

“WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The agriculture and biofuel industries and their U.S. congressional allies ramped up pressure on the Trump administration on Wednesday over the relief he has given oil refiners from rules requiring use of biofuels.

FILE PHOTO: U.S. and Iowa state flags are seen next to a corn field in Grand Mound, Iowa, United States, in this August 16, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Jim Young/Files/File Photo
Long-suffering American farmers, a constituency President Donald Trump is counting on in his campaign for re-election in 2020, have seen prices for crops hit hard by his trade war with China. This month, farmers also complained that a government crop report did not reflect damage from historic flooding this spring.

Farmers have been infuriated at the administration’s decision to grant waivers exempting 31 oil refineries from rules requiring them to blend corn-based ethanol into gasoline.

National and state trade groups along with their political allies delivered letters to the White House over the past 48 hours detailing the damage the waivers have caused the biofuel industry.

Democratic presidential hopefuls have used the refinery issue as a cudgel, echoing farm groups who say Trump has betrayed them by siding with Big Oil. Alarmed, the Republican president ordered his cabinet to find ways to boost biofuel demand.

The Iowa Soybean Association’s letter to the White House said the refining exemptions were forcing biodiesel producers to shut plants and lay off workers. Soybeans are a feedstock for biodiesel, so growers have been hurt.

“It’s becoming more difficult to understand why your administration is choosing to support higher profits for oil companies instead of providing some stability for farmers,” said the letter, signed by Lindsay J. Greiner, president of the state’s soybean association.

Iowa, the largest U.S. producer of corn and ethanol, is a swing state won twice by Democrat Barack Obama. The state switched to the Republican candidate in 2016, in part because Trump promised to support ethanol.

Cindy Axne, a Democrat who represents Iowa’s third district, wrote to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging its independent watchdog to investigate the small refinery waivers granted between 2016 and 2018.

“What we’re seeing with this administration is a dogged approach to allow the biggest fossil fuel players an opportunity to put more money back in the pockets of their large shareholders and take that money out of the pockets of hardworking farmers right here in Iowa,” Axne said at a news conference.

Republican Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, a Trump political ally, along with the state’s head of agriculture, said in a letter to the EPA that rural families have borne the brunt of the trade war and are now being pinched by the refinery waivers.

“Ethanol consumption fell for the first time in 20 years, commodity markets are depressed, and many biofuel plants, including several in Iowa, have already slowed or halted production,” the letter said.”
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#2
Our biofuel policy is hugely complicated mess that trades one subsidy for another.
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#3
Speedy wrote:
Yet the farmers will still vote for him because he is not one of those Kenyans.

He's gonna take muh guns and force me to foller Sherry's law!
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#4
It's not just biofuels, the whole energy policy has usually been reacting after the fact and manipulated by oil companies.
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#5
Biofuels are a great idea, but corn is a stupid way to go. It takes as much energy put into it as you get out. We should be doing growing sugar cane in the south instead, which yields several times more energy than what you put into it.
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#6
Carnos Jax wrote:
Biofuels are a great idea, but corn is a stupid way to go. It takes as much energy put into it as you get out. We should be doing growing sugar cane in the south instead, which yields several times more energy than what you put into it.

Or switchgrass in the north which yields six times as much per acre compared to corn.
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#7
Didn’t Bush tout switchgrass? I want to mow the lawn and put the clippings into the tank.
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#8
Carnos Jax wrote:
We should be doing growing sugar cane in the south instead, which yields several times more energy than what you put into it.

Ah, but I bet that's not economically viable, as compared to turning it into cane sugar (which has an artificially raised and maintained federal price level).

:facepalm:
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#9
With the war on diesel most corner gas stations here have dropped it...and are replacing it with non-ethanol gasoline on that pump.

Let the farmers burn ethanol in their tractors instead.
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#10
I'm in agreement with setting up a system that'll run the big farm gear on what they grow. They'd probably appreciate it. Except of course, such engines don't practically exist because diesel's better.

I wasn't aware there's a "war" on diesel, but around here (rural TN) every station carries it because oil burners are very popular on the street, not to mention the farm stuff. Gas pickups are a minority, and every kid who just got his first job is making payments on a 10-yr old turbodiesel lifted truck.
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