Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz and Iowa governor Terry Branstad traded criticisms Sunday over Cruz’s opposition to renewable energy subsidies, which could play a major role in Monday’s caucuses in the state.
“Cruz’s voting record has been against ethanol,” Branstad said during a panel on Iowa politics on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s been against the tax credit for wind energy, and those are thousands of jobs in our state.”
Branstad, also a Republican, has declined to endorse any candidate but encouraged Iowans to vote against the Texas Republican because of his stance on subsidies. “We’ve got a lot of really great candidates and most of them support renewable energy,” he said Sunday.
Separately, in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Cruz accused Branstad of being compromised on the issue by his financial interests.
“The people who are attacking me on this are lobbyist and Democrats,” Cruz said. Referring to Branstad, he said that “his son is a lobbyist who makes hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying on ethanol. So his family makes a ton of money.”
Eric Branstad, the governor’s son, represents the ethanol industry.
Earlier this month, Terry Branstad encouraged Republicans in his state to vote against Cruz. The attack came as the conservative senator began to rise toward the top of polls in the state. While Iowans traditionally have supported the subsidies and laws that benefit their renewable energy production, conservatives elsewhere have decried them as unfair and costly market distortions.
On Sunday, Branstad elaborated on his position.
“We produce more ethanol than we consume in gasoline, we’re the leader in wind energy. We just saw the wind energy tax credit extended. Cruz is opposed to that,” he said. “Those are thousands of jobs in our state, 43 ethanol plants, people making windblades and turbines and towers. We want to protect those jobs and continue to grow the Iowa economy.”
He added, however, that he trusted the people of Iowa to make the right decision about the best candidate for president.
On Sunday, Cruz argued that his policies would benefit Iowans in the ethanol industry. He would make them less dependent on Washington, he said, and also undo EPA regulations that prevent ethanol from being sold more widely.
