Presidential wannabes don’t have to back ethanol subsidies to win in Iowa. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz proved that much when he carried the caucuses in 2016.
On Thursday, however, millionaire biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy decided to “check-the-box” while claiming his newfound endorsement for ethanol subsidies was “not a check-the-box, we love Iowa kind of thing.”
Ramaswamy claimed in an Iowa interview with the Washington Examiner that government subsidies for ethanol were about “consumer choice.” The outsider candidate argued any absence of ethanol subsidies would be a subsidy on “non-ethanol.”
“You’re going to need to use Jaws of Life to save his argument for ethanol subsidies,” Federalist Senior Editor David Harsanyi wrote on Twitter. “Nothing says choice like subsidies and mandates!”
The federal government has heavily subsidized Iowa’s largest export, corn, for nearly two decades through the Renewable Fuel Standard. The 2005 regulations require gasoline companies to blend set amounts of biofuels into their mix to reduce emissions. Ethanol derived from corn has become the primary substitute for fossil-based fuels. Ethanol only exists in gasoline, however, to boost the corn industry.
A 2016 study from the University of Michigan with the American Petroleum Institute found biofuels such as corn ethanol is actually “associated with a net increase rather than a net decrease in CO2 emissions.” The conclusion comes out of the fact biofuels are far from carbon neutral.
Another paper from the University of Tennessee that examined the first 10 years of the Renewable Fuel Standard found “corn ethanol hasn’t
