Opportunistic messaging is as common in Washington as Metro delays. But when an industry group selectively employs the same free market arguments it usually rejects in order to push for special treatment for its product, that’s a level of rich hypocrisy that demands a response.

Recently, the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association joined other ethanol-industry heavyweights in making a case for the dubiously named Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act, saying the government should stop impeding the free market and allow expanded sales of less energy-dense E15 fuel during summer months. As taxpayer advocates, we are all for a consumer-demand-driven market — which is why it is vital to remember that the IRFA, while engaged in this small-seeming push for more E15, is also waging a full-on battle to expand the government’s special protection of the ethanol industry in the form of federal fuel mandates.