By Christopher Harder
Here’s your morning jolt of news, insight and analysis on the global energy business.
REPUBLICAN SENATOR OPPOSES RENEWABLE FUEL STANDARD
The Obama adminstration has increased the amount of corn-based ethanol and other renewable fuels in the U.S. gasoline supply despite opposition from oil companies, environmentalists and Republican presidential candidates.
Energy issues are filtering further into the U.S. presidential campaign as Republican Sen. Ted Cruz calls for an end to the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires refineries to blend biofuels including corn-based ethanol into gasoline. That doesn’t help him in Iowa, a farm state and the site of Feb. 1 Republican presidential caucuses, Reid J. Epstein reports. Mr. Cruz, the front-runner in the caucuses, has prompted a fierce backlash from the agricultural industry.
The state’s biggest ethanol trade groups are in the midst of a multi-million-dollar campaign to stop Mr. Cruz from becoming the first presidential candidate in either party to win the state while opposing the standard since it was enacted in 2005. Mr. Cruz introduced a bill in 2014 that would overhaul several energy policies, including phasing out the mandate over five years, similar to his current campaign position.
The law has been a boon to corn growers but hardly anyone else, writes Merrill Matthews, a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas.