Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) has some tough words on the administration’s push for electric vehicles, including comments by USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Ernst slammed the administration when asked about Vilsack’s comment to a Growth Energy summit, farmers complain too much about EVs and should focus instead on new opportunities like Sustainable Aviation Fuel.
She says, “I do believe that we can move to Sustainable Aviation Fuel, but I’m telling you, when you have a mandate coming from the federal government, this administration, that half of the new vehicles being sold will be EVs, it sounds like they’re forcing the farmers out of the market.”
Despite Vilsack’s consolation that there’s a possible 36 billion-gallon market for Sustainable Aviation Fuel if the administration oks biofuel tax credits.
Separately, not all Ag Senators are on board with a bipartisan push to use CCC funds to cushion a no-new-money farm bill. Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, “We should not have a slush fund that is outside of the appropriation process, that doesn’t give Congress control of the purse strings. So, obviously, I don’t like that approach.”
Grassley charges both the Biden and Trump administrations used the CCC as a “political slush fund” for pet projects, most recently for Climate Smart programs. Grassley hopes to amend the pending USDA-FDA spending bill with his ‘USDA Accountability Act’ to ban CCC spending without Congressional approval.