Sullivan is wrong about ethanol politics

Just as we know it won’t be long before Iowa weather changes, we can always count on it not being long before Adam Sullivan writes his next column against ethanol.

Most recently he criticized Iowa Democrats for calling out Ted Cruz while he was in the state recently for relentlessly working against the success of Iowa biofuels. He chalked up the party’s support of ethanol as political and cynical, but Sullivan couldn’t be more wrong.

Is it cynical to stand up for a key sector of Iowa’s economy that supports nearly 40,000 jobs and contributes billions to the state’s GDP? Is it playing politics to point out that Cruz is perhaps the nation’s most well-known adversary against the growth of biofuels?

Sullivan’s assertion that Iowa Democrats have only recently started supporting ethanol in reaction to former President Donald Trump’s stance on the issue is just silly. Former Sen. Tom Harkin and former Reps. Leonard Boswell and Dave Loebsack would be shocked to hear such an assertion.

A recent Harvard University study found ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 50 percent compared to gasoline. Iowa biofuels are getting cleaner with each passing year and Iowa’s leaders across party lines can see that.

Iowa’s leaders see, as Sen. Chuck Grassley likes to say, ethanol is good, good, good. The only one being cynical and playing politics here is Mr. Sullivan and it’s just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Cassidy Walter

Communications Director

Iowa Renewable Fuels Association