The Republican candidate for governor is taking on the petroleum industry for ads which contend a state law requiring all gas pumps in Iowa to dispense an ethanol blend would cause pump prices to rise in Iowa.
Congressman Jim Nussle, the G-O-P candidate for governor, is shooting back at the petroleum industry. “I’d like to know how they’re going to promote choice when you pull up to a pump and it’s basically their choice,” Nussle says. “You have to choose what (the petroleum industry has) provided for you and that’s the only choice.”
Nussle says there are many people who want more choices at the pump. “The best way to promote choice in Iowa is to promote Iowa energy, Iowa value-added energy such as ethanol or soydiesel produced right here in Iowa,” Nussle says. “I’ve chosen to do it as a small mandate of at least 10 percent of the fuel pumped in Iowa to have an Iowa choice in there.” Last fall,
Nussle announced his support for a law that would require all fuel pumped in Iowa to be an ethanol blend. “I think that would provide Iowans with a lot more choice than they have right now which is basically choose what the petroleum marketers are offering, choose foreign energy,” he says.
Nussle contends if Iowa gas stations are required to offer only ethanol blends, that will free up at least one pump at a station that could be converted to offering the higher-blend of ethanol, E-85. The Petroleum Institute says ethanol prices are outpacing the price of gasoline, partly because the petroleum-based fuel additive M-T-B-E is being replaced nationwide by ethanol, pushing up demand for ethanol elsewhere — and pushing up prices as a result.