Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who endorsed Donald Trump on Tuesday, is now urging the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s energy policy adviser to reconsider his current position on the Renewable Fuel Standard.
North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer has been advising Trump on energy policy since the beginning of May and recently told Bloomberg News he’s recommended that the candidate “get rid of the [RFS] in 2022” if he’s elected president.
Cramer said he believes the goals of the federal ethanol mandate have already been met and the next president should acknowledge that “free markets are free markets.”
But in a letter to Cramer sent by Santorum and former Missouri Sen. Jim Talent on Wednesday, the two lawmakers claim the RFS “remains a vital bulwark for U.S. energy security against foreign manipulation.”
“We urge you to join your fellow leaders in supporting a policy that is vital to protecting our economy, our environment, and our nation’s energy security,” wrote the two co-chairmen of Americans for Energy Security and Innovation.
“The unfortunate truth is that the global energy market is not a free market,” they added, citing the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ market manipulation and efforts to “push up” the price of oil.
“Opening this market to truly free competition will require a sustained commitment to the RFS, as Mr. Trump promised voters in January,” Santorum and Talent wrote.
Shortly before the Iowa caucuses, Trump came out in favor of the federal ethanol mandate and went as far as to suggest the EPA should increase ethanol levels in the nation’s gasoline supply.
Santorum and Talent said they hoped Cramer would adjust his position on the RFS if he plans to continue serving as “an energy policy advisor to our party’s presumptive presidential nominee.”
