We were going to say you are stupid . . . greedy . . . and your mother dresses you funny . . . but we decided against it.
As Rich Lowry writing at the publication Freedom’s Back in an article titled Cruz Dares To Take On King Corn describes the situation:
The ethanol machine, under the auspices of America’s Renewable Future, has done everything to dog Cruz short of declaring him wanted for grave offenses against Iowa’s favorite boondoggle. The group is headed by Eric Branstad, whose dad happens to be Iowa’s governor for life, Terry Branstad, now on his sixth term. Gov. Branstad recently baldly stated that he wants Cruz defeated. This is a little like the papal bull issued against Queen Elizabeth in 1570 excommunicating her from the Catholic Church and implicitly sanctioning attempts on her life. Branstad wants Cruz dead, and doesn’t particularly care who does the deed.
In this letter received yesterday, David VanderGriend a recognized authority on ethanol production and marketing, who has built more ethanol plants in Iowa than anyone, writes in support of Cruz.
From the Desk of
DAVID VANDERGRIEND
Dear Fellow Conservative,
You and I don’t know each other well, but I am going to write you today as if we are old friends.
Why? Because the subject of this letter Iowa’s agriculture economy is personal to me. And when agenda-driven political attacks threaten Iowa’s farming communities, I take that very personally and am inclined to take action as well.
That is why I decided to write you this letter today. You have received lots of slick attack mailings against Senator Ted Cruz claiming he is somehow “against the farmer” or “anti-ethanol.” These claims are false. While all these mailings harp on Sen. Cruz’s opposition to the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS), that fact alone does not make him anti-ethanol.
To the contrary, Senator Ted Cruz is pro-ethanol. And in my opinion, he is the forward-thinking leader for Iowa agriculture we need working for us in the White House.
And believe me, I am in a position to judge which candidates will really help Iowa’s economy, and which candidates are just telling us what we want to hear. After growing up on a farm outside Sheldon. Iowa and experiencing the importance of farming on the economy of rural America. I have made it my mission to help sustain agriculture by finding innovative ways to turn grain into renewable energy such as ethanol. I have been involved in ethanol since the very beginning and have built over half the ethanol plants in Iowa.
In short, no one is more personally and financially invested in ethanol than I am.
And I can say the accusations being leveled at Senator Cruz on ethanol are untrue. Some have stated Sen. Cruz won’t even meet with industry leaders. Well, he’s met with me several times, and he and I have had in-depth discussions on ethanol and the best ways for the federal government to help Iowa’s ethanol industry grow in the future. And let me tell you, this man is not the ideologically-rigid, anti-ethanol demon his opponents are trying to portray him as in all these ridiculous ads.
Is Cruz anti-mandate? Yes. In fact, he is against all federal mandates, including those supporting the oil industry in his home state of Texas.
But does that make Ted Cruz anti-ethanol? No. Not at all.
Anyone who thinks the two are inseparable may not be seeing the big picture for ethanol, or understand what is really going to determine our fate.
The RFS helped ethanol producers gain access to consumers at first, but moving forward, it will not do anything to drive demand in a way that really helps the industry grow in a free market with consumers choosing the fuels they like.
It’s sort of like the recovery I recently made from hip replacement surgery this past
Thanksgiving. At first, I needed two crutches just to walk across the room. A month later, I could get around with just one crutch. After a few more weeks, all I needed was a cane. Today, I don’t need anything I’m walking around on the two feet God gave me, and nothing else. No canes, no crutches.
P.O. Box 473 * Wall Lake, IA 51466
Paid for by Keep The Promise I. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee, www.keepthepromisel .com
Well here’s the deal: for ethanol. the RFS is the crutch. At first it’s necessary, but if you rely on it forever, you can’t go very far, or very fast. The time has come that our goal for the ethanol industry must be to stand on our own. That’s the only way to get where we need to go.
How do we do that?
By getting rid of all the Environmental Protection Agency regulatory roadblocks that Washington has layered in front of us during the past 20 years, we will then be able to move forward with sunsetting the RFS.
Which presidential candidate really gets this?
Senator Ted Cruz. He has studied this issue closely himself, and is committed to a real forward-thinking agenda that will help the ethanol industry grow over the next decade:
• Eliminate unreasonable and unfair caps on the blend rate.
• Remove government restrictions that artificially limit market demand for
E15 and E30 blends.
• Ending Catch-22 regulations that nonsensically prevent mid-level blends
from serving as test fuels.
• Enforce anti-trust laws to ensure the oil-and-gas industry can’t block access
to the market for ethanol producers.
The bottom line is if we can eliminate the regulations holding us back, that will open up a market three times bigger than the RFS. The farmer and the ethanol business in Iowa will have a future we can plan, without worrying about arbitrary rulings from bureaucrats working at the EPA.
Over the years, I’ve met plenty of candidates who just say they are “pro-ethanol.” They will reflexively support the RFS because they don’t understand the issue and figure it’s the easiest way to get our votes.
Senator Cruz is better than that, and in my opinion, he is the most enlightened, principled ally ethanol has in the entire field of presidential candidates, because he has actually spent the time to learn and understand our issues.
lowans like you have a serious responsibility to choose wisely in this Republican Presidential Caucus. For my part, I’ve given all the candidates serious consideration, and I wholeheartedly support Senator Ted Cruz, because as president, he will help ensure the ethanol industry in Iowa and nationwide will have a strong and vibrant future.
Thank you for your time today. I hope you will join me and offer Senator Cruz your support in the February 1st Iowa Caucus.
Respectfully,
David VanderGriend, ICM, Inc.
