Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley indicated he would stand against Donald Trump if the GOP nominee sought to eliminate wind power as president.
Trump has railed against wind energy on the campaign trail, and Grassley sounded as though he was spoiling for a fight in an interview with Yahoo News.
“If he wants to do away with it, he’ll have to get a bill through Congress, and he’ll do it over my dead body,” Grassley told the outlet.
Grassley has touted his status as the author of the “original production tax credit for electricity from wind” and has fought to maintain the credit that he argues benefits Iowan workers.
Trump, however, argued earlier this month that wind energy harms wildlife.
“The wind kills all your birds. All your birds, killed,” Trump said in Pennsylvania earlier this month. “You know, the environmentalists never talk about that.”
Grassley is running for re-election in 2016 and his remarks about wind energy may be aimed at distancing himself from the GOP nominee. Trump visited Iowa last weekend and was joined onstage by prominent Republicans such as Congressman Steve King, Gov. Terry Branstad and U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst — not Grassley.
With under 69 days to go until Election Day, RealClearPolitics’ average of polls places Hillary Clinton ahead of Trump by 1.5 percentage points, 42-40.5.
