Senator Barack Obama was a fierce advocate of corn ethanol, but after winning Iowa, he has moderated his stance. In fact, he even nominated an ambassador to Brazil who doesn’t support our tarrifs that keep out foreign ethanol.
But that makes the nominee, Thomas Shannon, unpalatable to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, according to Congress Daily and Foreign Policy.
In letters to Secretary Clinton and USTR Kirk, Grassley wrote: “A clear signal of the President’s stance on this issue would decrease the possibility of confusion in America’s heartland and in Brazil regarding the ethanol tariff if Mr. Shannon were confirmed as Ambassador to that country.”
If you want a primer on the cornucopia of subsidies ethanol receives, you can check my columns here, here, and here.
