The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected a bid to force Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture to declare that all gasoline sold in Iowa be blended with corn-based ethanol.U-S Senator Charles Grassley, the Iowa Farm Bureau, the Iowa Corn Growers Association and a dozen legislators petitioned Ag Secretary Patty Judge last year, asking her to issue an administrative rule that would require ethanol be the only fuel available at Iowa gas pumps. Judge asked the Attorney General, and both agreed she didn’t have the authority to make such a declaration. The former presidents of the Iowa Farm Bureau and the Iowa Corn Growers Association sued, but the Iowa Supreme Court has sided with Judge, and in its ruling said the legislature would have clearly given the Ag Secretary the authority to make the pro-ethanol move if it wanted her to do so.
