President Biden’s infrastructure plan has “massive investments in electric cars” but the biofuels industry thinks it is getting shortchanged, Ryan McCrimmon and Kelsey Tamborrino report for Politico.
“Corn growers and producers of ethanol — the corn-based renewable fuel that has long enjoyed special status as a government-mandated ingredient in gasoline — would get only a tiny slice of the funds proposed in the infrastructure package, despite Biden’s assurances that he views them as key to reducing dependence on fossil fuels. So now they’re turning to their traditional allies in Congress to get themselves written in.”
The issue is a good example of the political tightrope Biden must walk in appealing to Corn Belt biofuels producers while pursuing environmental goals.
“Ethanol production supports more than 300,000 jobs concentrated in rural areas and added about $43 billion to U.S. economic output in 2019, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a lobby group for ethanol producers,” McCrimmon and Tamborrino report. “Reminders of its political importance come every four years, as presidential candidates in both parties fawn over ethanol during the primary campaigns ahead of the crucial Iowa caucuses.”
The Rural Blog is a publication of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues based at the University of Kentucky.
