Ethanol mandate

Ted Cruz refuses to budge in opposition to ethanol mandate

By Katie Glueck

In Iowa, Ted Cruz is under fire from the highest-ranking Republican in the state over his opposition to the ethanol mandate. But Cruz found a friendlier audience for that position in New Hampshire on Wednesday.

“There should be no mandates, no subsidies whatsoever for any energy source, whether ethanol or oil and gas or anything else,” he said at a town hall here after a voter expressed concern that perhaps he was now in favor of the Renewable Fuel Standard. Stressing that he does not support that ethanol mandate, Cruz continued, “Right now I am the only major candidate in Iowa who is taking that position. Right now, my opponents are all attacking me.”

Those remarks played well in New Hampshire, even as Cruz is grappling with fall-out over the issue in Iowa. A day earlier, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad indicated that he wanted to see Cruz defeated in Iowa because he opposes the ethanol mandate. The remarks from the popular governor, who has pledged to stay neutral in the caucuses and hasn’t endorsed since 1996, were highly unusual (his son, Eric Branstad, is also leading a pro-ethanol group that has tussled with Cruz). The comments come as Cruz faces an increasingly tough race for first place in the state, a place where he for a time appeared to be the dominant poll-leader but has since seen that lead over Donald Trump narrow considerably.

“Just yesterday, Donald Trump promised not only to protect the ethanol mandate, but to expand it,” he continued. “To have the federal government do even more picking winners and losers by mandating ethanol be a larger part of the markets. I’m getting hit literally with millions of dollars of attacks on exactly this issue.”

He went on to describe the Iowa Ag Summit last spring, in which many of the candidates went to “kiss the ring” of the ethanol industry, but where he spelled out his support for phasing out the mandate over five years.

“Listen, when I said that, I didn’t know if they would boo and throw tomatoes,” he said. “That’s like coming up to New Hampshire and saying, ‘I’m for the Broncos.’”

“It’s just not a safe course of action,” he continued. “I’m not for the Broncos, by the way. That was a hypothetical. Go Patriots.”