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Congressional candidate Scholten says government policies are ‘pushing down on our farmers’

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J.D. Scholten

J.D. Scholten, the Democrat challenging Republican Congressman Steve King’s bid for a ninth term, says consolidation in agriculture and President Trump’s trade war are making it harder for farmers to make a profit. The EPA’s anti-ethanol moves to benefit the oil industry isn’t helping either, according to Scholten.

“Our American government is pushing down on our farmers,” Scholten said Saturday. “Who’s looking out for farmers? Who’s looking out for us?”

Scholten made his comments this weekend during a speech at The Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox at the Iowa State Fair. Scholten, a former professional baseball player who now works as a paralegal in Sioux City, stressed his family’s farm roots.

“My great-great grandparents turned the field in Worth County and so it’s in my blood,” Scholten said. “I’m a fifth-generation Iowan, first to be raised in town. Our family farm we rent out to a family friend.”

Scholten criticized the Bayer-Monsanto merger, arguing farmers will have to pay more for seeds and farm chemicals. And Scholten saod farmers are the first victims in the Trump Administration’s trade policies.

“The fourth district is bearing the brunt of these tariffs and that’s got to end,” Scholten said. “You look at the $12 billion bailout…It’s like you’re getting punched in the face and that same guy that’s punching you in the face gives you an ice cube.”

Scholten saod both Democrats and Republicans have failed farmers by allowing the mergers of grain processing, meat packing and seed companies to create monopoligies and “it’s time to get ahead of the curve.”

King says farmers want EPA action on ethanol, not $12 billion aide package

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Congressman Steve King.

Republican Congressman Steve King today said the best thing the Trump Administration could do to alleviate farmers’ angst about the trade war would be to allow higher percentages of ethanol to be blended into gasoline year-round.

“Let the market determine what that blend could be It could go E15, E20, E30, all the way up to E85,” King said. “If the administration does that, I will tell you our producers here would be happy and they would be a lot happier than the promise of $12 billion distributed. They want to earn and they want to trade.”

King met privately Monday evening with EPA acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. King said Wheeler is trying to strike a deal that will placate the ethanol and oil industries.

“Administrator Wheeler is cautious. He’s afraid that if he opens up the door for E15 and beyond that there will be litigation,” King said. “The argument I made to him strongly is if you’re trying to get two stakeholders to agree, the one that already holds the advantage is never going to agree, so you have to go ahead and do what’s right.”

King is among those attending an event featuring Vice President Mike Pence this afternoon in Des Moines. King said the 2017 tax bill was an early Christmas present that is still giving and has created confidence and optimism in the business community.

“The cloud that looms over us is the one of “where does trade take us?'” King said. “But many of them say, ‘I’m willing to ride this thing out if we get a better deal on the other side.'”

King spoke with reporters before the event started. King said he’s warned the Trump Administration things “will get pretty tense” in Iowa if there’s no progress on trade deals by the time soybeans are maturing in September.

Iowans tell EPA chief president made E15 promise, it’s time to deliver

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Andrew Wheeler

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s acting administrator met privately with Iowa commodity group leaders at the Iowa State Fair today — but Andrew Wheeler told reporters afterwards there is no decision yet on regulations that would allow a higher blend of ethanol to be sold year-round.

“I can’t tell you the timeline,” Wheeler said late this afternoon. “We are mindful of needing to have a decision on that before the growing season next year.”

Wheeler seemed to indicate EPA guidelines that would approve the sale of E15 year-round would be coupled with some sort of accommodation for the oil industry.

“We’re certainly looking to see what we can do overall as a part of a larger effort to bring more certainty around the RFS and we’re open to that and I’ve been meeting with different groups around the country — different associations that represent the ethanol people, the refiners — trying to figure out what we can do ,” Wheeler said.

Congressman Young’s office sent out this picture of the roundtable with David Wheeler.

“The important thing is the Trump Administration wants to move forward with implementing the RFS (in) both the spirit and the letter of the law.”

The Renewable Fuels Standard was established by congress and requires the EPA to annually set a mandatory production level for ethanol and other biofuels. Republican Governor Kim Reynolds criticized previous EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt for granting waivers that let some oil refiners get around the federal ethanol mandate. Reynolds made the same point today as she stood next to the EPA’s acting director at a brief news conference.

“Fifteen million gallons needs to mean 15 million gallons and I think that’s the message that was delivered today in a very constructive manner,” Reynolds said “And that is something that the Adminsitration and EPA could weigh in on that would have an immediate impact on the price of corn and infuse some optimism and certainty into the market.”

Acting EPA leader Wheeler shakes hands with a man at the Iowa State Fair.

Iowa Farm Bureau president Craig Hill was among the few dozen ag-industry leaders who had a private discussion with Wheeler. Hill said the meeting was “constructive,” but the Iowans didn’t get the answers they were hoping for.

“It’s been Christmas for the oil industry on every one of these deals. Where’s our deal?” Hill said. “…We’ve not gotten a thing.”

Hill said farmers and the ethanol industry appreciate that the EPA has met the deadline for setting the federal production mandate for ethanol, but they’re frustrated the waivers granted to oil refineries has effectively reduced the mandated level of ethanol production.

Congressman David Young, a Republican from Van Meter, thanked Wheeler for being “accessible” and listening to Iowa farm groups who’ve been worried about EPA foot-dragging on ethanol-related issues.

“Because of what President Trump said in promising E15, thinking it was a fabulous idea, there’s an expectation that’s going to happen,” Young said.

Young told reporters if the EPA doesn’t figure out how to authorize the sale of E15 year-round, a bipartisan coalition in congress is working on legislation to make it happen.

Governor says EPA administrator to visit Iowa State Fair

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The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will be in Iowa on Monday. Governor Kim Reynolds says acting EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler will visit the Iowa State Fair and meet with “a small group of commodity group” leaders as well as state officials.

“This is an opportunity for me again…to . encourage them to move forward with E15…year-round. We continue to advocate for that every time I get in front of the administration,” Reynolds says. “That would have an immediate impact on the price of corn.”

E15 is 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline.

Reynolds says she will press Wheeler on trade issues as well.

“We need to see some movement. We need to see either a bilateral done with Mexico, Canada, something done with NAFTA, some significant movement with the EU and then, you know, maybe bring our allies together and focus on China, but as we move into harvest season, it’s extremely important that we start to see something,” Reynolds says. “While we appreciate the $12 billion and it migitates some of the financial loss, our farmers do not want a handout. They want access to markets and that’s what we’re going to continue to advocate for.”

Wheeler replaced EPA chief Scott Pruitt a month ago. Pruitt resigned after a series of scandals and conflicts with corn-state senators like Joni Ernst, who called Pruitt “swampy” and accused him of favoring the oil industry over ethanol and biofuel producers.

Pruitt’s replacement is a lawyer who is a former congressional staffer and lobbyist for the coal industry. Iowa’s congressional delegation invited Wheeler to Iowa last month, shortly after he took the top job in the EPA.

(By George Bower, KICD, Spencer)

Blum hoping work requirement for welfare in final Farm Bill version

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Rod Blum (file photo)

The U.S. House and Senate have each passed their versions of the next Farm Bill and now a conference committee of members from each chamber will meet to come up with a final version. Republican Congressman Rod Blum of Dubuque is hoping a work requirement for welfare that passed the House winds up in the final Farm Bill agreement.

“For the first time in our nation’s history we have more job openings than we have people applying for them,” Blum said earlier this week in Manchester. “It’s a great problem to have, but it’s still a problem and so we need welfare reform and in the Farm Bill that the House passed it says if you’re between 18 and 59 years old and you’re mentally and physically able to work and you don’t have a young child in your home, you should be be looking for a job or working or increasing your job skills, like at a community college.”

Blum, though, expects that proposal will be left out of the Farm Bill’s final version, since it was not included in the Senate’s draft of the Farm Bill. Blum said he’s hoping for congressional action to increase the number of temporary visas for agricultural workers.

“We need more legal immigration,” Blum said. “We need more people. We need more bodies and I think we can get them through welfare reform and immigraton reform.”

Blum said the Farm Bill that cleared the U.S. House in early July “maintains a strong crop insurance program” and encourages expansion of rural broadband infrastructure.

(By Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester)

Congressman Blum says he told President Trump farmers need a win on trade

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Congressman Rod Blum talks with a Delaware County Farm Bureau member.

Republican Congressman Rod Blum says he privately lobbied President Donald  Trump on trade issues as the two flew to Iowa last week for an event in northeast Iowa.

“Trust me. We talked about trade, trade, trade and how we need to get some of these trade deals…especially Mexico, done,” Blum said during a visit to Manchester this week. “…I absolutely hammered on those items.”

During last week’s round table discussion in Peosta, Blum thanked Trump for having the “political courage to renegotiate these trade deals” and Blum said farmers, manufacturers and employers “are all going to be better off” in the long-term because of it. On Monday, Blum said he had a longer, private discussion with Trump and not only brought up trade, but getting EPA approval for selling E15, a higher blend of ethanol, year round.

“It’s amazing to be able to spend 20-25 minutes with the president alone on Air Force One. I had dinner with Vice President Pence on Air Force Two three weeks ago,” Blum said. “I’m not saying that braggadociously. I’m saying that it’s good for the first district for their representative have that kind of one-on-one time with those individuals. It’s invaluable.”

The Vice President spoke at a Cedar Rapids business July 11 and then headlined a private fundraiser for Pence’s reelection campaign. Blum said on Monday that he’s told both Trump and Pence “the ag community needs a win” to emerge from negotiations with China, Mexico and Canada.

“We’re re-negotiating these trade deals with everybody, it seems like,” Blum said. “And can we get a win under our belts? I think that would be just psychologically for our ag producers, it’d be good news.”

Blum’s Democratic opponent, Abby Finkenauer of Dubuque, has tweeted that Blum’s “blind support for the Trump Administration’s Twitter trade war, despite its impact on our farmers, is out of touch” and it will take “new leaders” in congress to put a stop to it.

(Story and photo by Janelle Tucker, KMCH, Manchester; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)

Ethanol backers say waivers depressed ethanol use by 2 billion gallons

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Ethanol advocates are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to raise the 2019 federal ethanol production mandate to make up for waivers granted this year. Scott Pruitt, the EPA Administrator who resigned earlier this month, issued waivers so some small refineries didn’t have to blend ethanol into gasoline.

Ron Lamberty, senior vice president of the American Coalition for Ethanol, testified at an EPA hearing in Michigan yesterday.

“They said they weren’t going to take comments on small refinery waivers and yet, you know, just about everybody commenting mentioned something about them,” Lamberty said, “and one of the people from the EPA on the panel said: ‘We understand you’re going to have comments about that and we’ve been talking about it back in EPA.'”

Ethanol advocates say more than two billion gallons of the corn-based fuel would have been added to gasoline if Pruitt hadn’t granted those waivers. Lamberty and others are lobbying the EPA to add onto the 2019 federal production guidelines to make up for the losses.

“In the past 18 months basically their approach has been to help refiners find ways to get around the law and to buy less ethanol and get more credit for it,” Lamberty said. “That’s not how congress intended the program to work, so I hope they take the opportunity to restore the volume that was lost.”

About 150 people testified at the EPA’s public hearing on the Renewable Fuels Standard. Governor Reynolds flew to Michigan to testify Wednesday afternoon. One farmer told EPA officials there’s a nearby ethanol plant that buys his corn, so he gets as much as 40 cents more per bushel.

(Reporting by Jerry Oster, WNAX, Yankton; additional reporting by Radio Iowa’s O. Kay Henderson)

Young says pressure campaign remains on EPA over RFS

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Congressman David Young. (file photo)

Republican Congressman David Young says now that Scott Pruitt has left the EPA, Iowa’s congressional delegation is turning its attention to Pruitt’s replacement. Young says he and other Iowans are urging acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to support the federal production mandate for biofuels — and pay a visit to Iowa.

“There are folks on the other side, primarily from oil states, who totally want to get rid of the Renewable Fuels Standard. We’ve heard that. We want to make sure that’s not the case in the end, though,” Young says. “We need a diverse portfolio when it comes to our fuels, up and down the line, from bio, petroleum-based, renewable fuels, solar, wind, hydro-power, nuclear. We want to be energy independent and renewable fuels has to be at the table.”

Young says it’s important to keep reminding whoever is in charge at the EPA that President Trump promised Iowans he’d defend the Renewable Fuels Standard. And Young says Iowa’s congressional delegation is urging Trump to appoint a permanent replacement for Pruitt who will approve or exceed the biofuel production levels spelled out in the Renewable Fuels Standard.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of pressure there to remind the president that if he’s going to get anyone there in a permanent fashion and he or she doesn’t abide by the law and the president’s promise, then they’re going to go through the same situation as they did and opinions that they had of Administrator Pruitt,” Young says.

Young says Pruitt not only raised “serious ethical concerns” by his actions as EPA administration, “he hurt Iowa farmers by recklessly undercutting” the federally mandated production levels for biofuels.

(By Mike Peterson, KMA, Shenandoah)

Iowa officials, biofuels industry hail EPA Administrator’s exit

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Scott Pruitt (file photo)

None of Iowa’s elected officials have used the phrase “good riddance,” but they are welcoming EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s resignation.

Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican, had called Pruitt “swampy.” Ernst was among those who accused Pruitt, who is from Oklahoma, of trying to undermine the federal ethanol production mandate.

Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said Pruitt had lost the public’s trust through his “ethical scandals” and undermining of the president’s promises on renewable fuels.

The new EPA Administrator is a former coal industry lobbyist and Republican Governor Kim Reynolds said she’s hoping he will “honor the president’s commitment to the Renewable Fuels Standard.”

The head of the National Corn Growers Association said it’s no secret farmers have been frustrated with Pruitt, who’d been granting waivers so big oil refineries didn’t have to blend as much ethanol into gasoline. The head of a biofuels industry group said Pruitt had driven “a wedge” between President Trump and his supporters in the Midwest.

Congressman David Young, a Republican from Van Meter, said Pruitt’s exit was “long overdue.” Fred Hubbell, the Democratic candidate for governor, tweeted that he’s happy to see Pruitt go if it means “less scandal and a brighter future for Iowa farmers.”

Iowa officials, ethanol industry blast EPA over oil industry waivers

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Key members in Iowa’s congressional delegation are expressing frustration about how the Environmental Protection Agency is managing the mandatory ethanol production target.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a slight increase in the amount of biofuels that must be blended into gasoline and diesel fuel next year. However, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley suggested EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt may be violating the law by granting waivers to oil refineries so they don’t have to blend ethanol into gasoline.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst said Iowa farmers aren’t getting the “honesty and transparency” they deserve from the EPA because Pruitt is handing out “an unprecedented number” of waivers. Congressman Dave Loebsack, a Democrat from Iowa City, said those waivers were intended for small refiners in danger of going bankrupt. Instead, Loeback and others in Iowa’s congressional delegation complain Pruitt has been granting waivers to huge companies that are making huge profits.

Trade groups are raising the same issue. According to the Iowa Corn Growers Association, the EPA administrator is granting oil refiners a “back-door” option that has already cost farmers and the ethanol industry more than five billion dollars. One ethanol industry executive said the EPA’s proposed ethanol production mandate for 2019 “isn’t a real number” because of the waivers Pruitt is granting the oil industry.