It Can Be Done

For nearly three decades, politicians, pollsters, and pundits have considered support for ethanol a litmus test for legitimacy in Iowa presidential politics. Former Vice President Al Gore, who won the Iowa Democratic caucuses in 2000, famously explained the strategizing over ethanol policies that has occurred in many campaign war rooms over the years:

First-generation ethanol I think was a mistake. . . . One of the reasons I made that mistake is that I paid particular attention to the farmers in my home state of Tennessee, and I had a certain fondness for the farmers in the state of Iowa because I was about to run for president.

The question commentators and analysts are trying to answer now, is this: After the Iowa caucus victory by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, who openly opposed the renewable fuel standard (RFS)—i.e., the federal law that mandates certain levels of ethanol be belnded into the nation’s fuel supply—is the era of ethanol policy dominating the Iowa primary process over? The truth it it is coming to an end and has been for some time. Indeed, the RFS may not exist at all by the time Iowans caucus in 2020.