Is McCain Shooting Himself in the Foot on the Ethonal Support?
In Corn Country, McCain Says No To Ethanol Support
DES MOINES, Iowa – Republican presidential candidate John McCain didn’t mince words Friday at the Iowa State Fair, telling corn producers he didn’t want to subsidize their ethanol but was eager to help market farm products around the world.
“My friends, we will disagree on a specific issue and that’s healthy,” McCain said as he stood near bales of straw at one of the nation’s premier farming showcases. “I believe in renewable fuels. I don’t believe in ethanol subsidies, but I believe in renewable fuels.”
McCain has never been shy about speaking against subsidizing ethanol when he is in farm country, though that stand helped to make him unpopular enough in Iowa that he skipped participating in its leadoff presidential caucuses in 2000 and put much less emphasis on them in 2008 than many of his opponents.
In a brief speech at the fairgrounds — where he viewed a 1,253-pound boar named Freight Train and looked for pork chop on a stick, a fair delicacy — McCain pledged to negotiate trade deals favorable to farm commodities.
“My mission and my job as president of the United States will be to make sure every market in the world is open to your products,” he said.
McCain met with Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey during his fairgrounds tour and promoted expanded pork exports as a boon to the nation’s leading hog-producing state. He said a free-trade deal with South Korea could boost profits by $10 a hog.
“Agriculture products here in the state of Iowa can feed the world and we’re not afraid to compete with anybody,” he said.
McCain said his visit gave him a chance to “meet and greet the real America.”
“This is the heartland of America, this is what America is all about, this is the people I want to know and meet,” he said.
Democrats in the state said McCain’s opposition to ethanol subsidies and the $300 billion farm bill would make it difficult for the Republican to win Iowa’s seven electoral votes and would hurt him throughout the Midwest. McCain called the bipartisan farm bill “bloated” and an example of the kind of spending measure he would veto as president.
“He voted against ethanol subsidies, he’s opposed to the farm bill,” Iowa Democratic Chairman Scott Brennan said. “What it proves is he doesn’t care about what’s important to Iowa.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080808/ap_on_el_pr/mccain;_ylt=AqyuE0quOMnntkBft6weBBADW7oF
Filed under: Commodity Trading
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Obama has the corn lobby all locked up. McCain can’t win Illinois and Iowa.
This will be an interesting debate topic between the two.
The US is paying huge subsidies to US production and have added huge penalties for imported ethanol from Brazil.
Let’s hope so
In those states it is a risky position, it is true, but I feel, as do many others, that this is the exact right side of the position to be on. Corn is needed for food not fuel. Ethanol has done nothing but damage both to pocketbooks and vehicles. Think about it; someone buying corn to make foods with corn syrup, corn starch, corn oil, or corn meal now have to share the market with those making fuel. No wonder food prices have skyrocketed. Giving subsidies for ethanol would only make matters worse.
Because Ethanol from corn is not the answer.
The truth about oil from corn is that corn can produce only 18 gallons of fuel grade oil per acre per year.
Palm oil can produce only 700 gallons of fuel grade oil per acre per year but palm can’t grow every where in the US.
We need to look else where
tcw
It’s an easy stand for McCain to make because so much of the farm belt are reliably red states anyway. He can count on the god, gays, guns, and fetuses crowd out there to give him their electoral votes and even get to smile and grease one less plate to get to the White House. Because of the stubborn partisanship of so many of those states; It’s a win/win for McCain…
let’s hope mccain wins over obama.. help him out by voting for him on this page!