Commentary
On Friday, June 3, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will require American refiners to blend a record amount of ethanol and other biofuels into the country’s fuel supply. Reactions were mixed. Corn farmers in Iowa, where more than 40 percent of each year’s corn crop is turned into fuel, were happy. Many environmentalists, oil refiners, and yours truly were dismayed.
There’s nothing inherently strange about President Joe Biden flying into Iowa to crow about mandating increased production of corn-based ethanol and E15 (motor fuel with a 15 percent ethanol content instead of the usual 10 percent). President Donald Trump did almost exactly the same thing four years before, flying into Iowa, a major corn-growing state, the month before mid-term elections to announce E15 mandates. (The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the implementation of E15 mandates, saying that the administration didn’t have that authority under the Clean Air Act.)…