The Iowa GOP delegation is letting go of days gone by when it comes to their short-lived spat with speaker Kevin McCarthy over biofuel tax credits during debt ceiling negotiations.
Usually not the troublemakers of the GOP conference, Iowa Republicans — Randy Feenstra, Ashley Hinson, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Zach Nunn — were prepared to challenge leadership and vote no to the bill if provisions that reclaim ethanol subsidies fail. were taken away.
But the group was able to meet with McCarthy and successfully make their case for the biofuel tax credits to be reinstated under the text of the legislation in an overnight amendment hours before the vote.
Now their differences are water under the bridge, despite tense conversations throughout the week, according to Feenstra’s retelling of the drama.
Feenstra told DailyMail.com it was “just a mistake” that the debt ceiling bill originally removed the biofuel tax cuts that almost completely thwarted the package.
Feenstra, whose district produces more biofuels than any other in the country combined, had nothing but praise for the speaker’s leadership after remaining tight-lipped about the closed-door negotiations all week.
“I’ll tell you what, Speaker McCarthy, I can’t cheer him on anymore,” the congressman said in an interview following the bill’s passage.
“He understood and he said to our delegation and to myself, ‘Hey, I understand how important it is to the Midwest, and we’re going to come up with a solution.'”
Biofuel subsidies were originally abolished as part of the Limit Save Grow Act as part of an effort to eliminate clean energy subsidies implemented in the Democrat-led IRA. But as Feenstra explains, the biofuel subsidies had been around for a long time — the IRA simply extended them because they were expiring.
Rep. Randy Feenstra told DailyMail.com it was “just a mistake” that the debt ceiling bill originally took away the biofuel tax cuts that almost completely thwarted the package
Iowa Republicans were able to meet Speaker McCarthy and successfully make their case to get biofuel tax credits back under the text of the legislation in an overnight amendment hours before the vote
“That’s why we were so concerned about saying, hey, we always had these and now they’re shipping. And that was the difference here.’
“Those few provisions were just extensions, they were nothing new,” Feenstra said. “So they got caught up in something they never should have gotten caught up in. It’s probably more of a mistake.’
After some internal struggles, the leadership managed to get enough votes to pass their sprawling debt ceiling on Wednesday, which includes $4.8 trillion in savings in exchange for a $1.5 trillion debt ceiling increase.
The bill passed 217 to 215—four Republicans voted against it.
Republicans were eager to pass the Limit Save Grow Act to force President Biden and Democrats to the negotiating table as the threat of default looms and the country’s $31.4 trillion borrowing limit approaches.
A dramatic will-they-or-not-they followed on Capitol Hill this week, where no one was sure the speaker would get the vote until the bill was tabled. If he didn’t, it would have been an unpleasant first for McCarthy – he hasn’t taken the floor and lost on his endorsement yet.
The back-and-forth that erupted now begs the question: If it was so hard to get Republicans on board with a party-line package, how could the speaker get his free-running conference to agree to a deal that was with Democrats? negotiated?
The leadership had unveiled the sprawling package, as some members quietly complained it didn’t have the grassroots input they wanted, but McCarthy pressed ahead, insisting he wouldn’t rewrite the bill until the 11th hour.
“No, we’re going to pass the bill,” he confidently told reporters Tuesday evening when asked if he would reopen the legislation.
“Don’t you listen to my answers?” he asked.
But when the speaker realized he didn’t have the votes without farmland Republicans and those concerned about job demands, he reopened the bill.
Sections eliminating subsidies for biofuels were removed and the new work requirements for social programs were adjusted to take effect in 2024 instead of 2025.
Biofuel subsidies are a small part of the federal budget, but are a lifeline for states like Iowa, where “every other corn and soybean row goes to ethanol or biodiesel,” Feenstra said.
“If this goes away, I mean, it would be catastrophic for our entire Iowa economy.”
The 2005 US Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requires the country’s oil refineries to blend some 15 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol into the country’s gasoline each year. The legislation was designed to reduce emissions, support farmers and make the US more energy independent.
Studies have reached different conclusions about whether blending ethanol into gasoline has a net environmental benefit, but Feenstra insists that U.S.-made biofuels are cleaner than Middle Eastern gasoline or electric vehicle parts from China.
Feenstra, whose district produces more biofuels than any other in the country combined, had nothing but praise for the speaker’s leadership after remaining tight-lipped about the closed-door negotiations all week
‘We always talk about electric vehicles and yet ethanol and biodiesel are the cleanest forms of energy our country can produce. And we don’t need to buy materials and batteries or even oil from our adversaries like China. – you know, we’re entitled to the granary of America.’
A 2019 study from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that ethanol’s carbon intensity is 39 percent lower than pure gasoline. A 2022 study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and funded in part by the National Wildlife Federation and the U.S. Department of Energy found that ethanol is likely at least 24 percent more carbon intensive due to emissions from land use change .
And in another victory for ethanol advocates, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday decided to allow E15, gasoline that is 15 percent ethanol, during the summer months.
The E15 blend has been banned in the summer months over concerns it contributes to smog, but the EPA said Friday they now don’t believe the move will have a significant impact on air quality. They say the move will help lower gas prices, promote energy independence and support American farmers.