America’s Renewable Future rips Cruz for not touring a biofuels plant

Eric Branstad

DES MOINES—America’s Renewable Future (ARF) is publicizing that 15 out of 16 candidates for president have either toured a biofuel plant or met with ARF leadership over the course of the election. The only candidate missing from the roster is Sen. Ted Cruz, whose staunch opposition to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in favor of the oil industry has made him a target for ARF.

Just last week Gov. Mike Huckabee, Gov. Chris Christie, and Carly Fiorina toured ethanol biorefineries across the state. Tomorrow Sen. Rick Santorum is touring Lincolnway Energy in Nevada, IA. Those candidates join Donald Trump and Gov. Martin O’Malley in seeing firsthand the benefits of the RFS at a plant.

Sec. Hillary Clinton, Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Gov. Jeb Bush, Gov. John Kasich, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Gov. George Pataki, Sen. Rand Paul, and Ben Carson or their campaigns have all met with ARF co-chairs or the organization’s leadership on the RFS.

“Every candidate, good or bad, has respected Iowans and the caucus process by sitting down with us and learning about the RFS, except for Ted Cruz,” said ARF State Director, Eric Branstad, “Cruz has ignored invitation after invitation to discuss the issue. He came to Iowa with his allegiance already established to the oil industry, not Iowans and not our caucus process.”

“We’re thankful to the rest of the candidates for taking this issue seriously and listening to Iowans,” Branstad added, “and we hope to hear more from them on the RFS, which is decreasing our dependence on foreign oil, providing 73,000 jobs to Iowans, and providing consumers a choice at the pump.”