GoodFuels

Party Platform Problems

Many Republican ethanol supporters were shocked when the party adopted a platform at the convention last week stating that the “U.S. government should end mandates for ethanol and let the free market work.”

That line which was included in the agriculture section of the platform reportedly ended up in there because the hurricane-shortened start to the convention scuttled any debate on the planks. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told reporters in a conference call that it was his understanding the “platform was presented and voted up and down without discussion and ethanol was not discussed separately.”

However, it does clearly reflect John McCain’s energy plan called the Lexington Project, that would involve eliminating “mandates, subsidies, tariffs and price supports that focus exclusively on corn-based ethanol.”

The ethanol industry and Republican politicians have expressed disappointment and concern over the wording in the platform. Among those who have spoken out against the plank are Senator John Thune (R-SD), the Republican governors of Nebraska and South Dakota, Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey, agricultural organizations such as the National Corn Growers Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, and the National Farmers Union, as well as the major ethanol organizations and producers.

It has left many wondering what they will do at the voting booth in November. Although the Democratic party platform says nothing about ethanol specifically, Senator Obama has stressed his support for the alternative fuel and for the Renewable Fuels Standard. While Republican supporters and party analysts have downplayed the platform plank as “pro-free-market” rather than anti-ethanol, it is still causing concern for the industry which believes the RFS is critical for continuing to work ethanol into the domestic fuel supply.

As Matt Hartwig with the Renewable Fuels Association says, a free market in energy simply doesn’t exist. “What we are trying to do in this country is fundamentally change a century of institutional memory,” Hartwig said during an interview at the AgNite celebration in Minneapolis on the second day of the convention. “We use oil in everything that we do and those interests are very well entrenched and do not want to give up their market share. There is absolutely a role for the federal government to play in partnering with a domestic renewable fuels industry.”