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SHENANDOAH, Iowa – President Donald Trump won 93 of Iowa's 99 counties in the 2016 presidential race – a record for a GOP candidate since 1980 – thanks largely to local farmers. But now, farmers here are wondering if they will vote for him again.
"Tensions between farmers are now quite tense," said NBC News Duane Aistrope, a corn and soybean producer from Randolph, Iowa – about two hours southwest of Des Moines -. the farmers did. "
The Midwestern agricultural industry is angry not only because of the president's trade war, but also because the Environmental Protection Agency recently exempted 31 small refineries from rules that would require them to mix ethanol , which comes from corn, to their fuel supply. These exemptions now force farmers to fight the loss of revenue from crop wastage.
Aistrope is a corn farmer in the US Midwest who over the past two seasons has battled depressed corn prices. Many farmers like him clashed with Trump during his long trade war with China, saying the United States should settle its trade policy with Beijing. But now, farmers like Aistrope say that these exemptions go too far.
"I hope he'll take care of us and do things right: just enforce the laws of the ethanol industry put in place by Congress," he said. Aistrope.
The Renewable Fuels Standard is a law that requires US fuel supplies to use a certain amount of corn ethanol on the country's gasoline market to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. the country's reliance on imported oil, according to the EPA.
Corn accounts for about one-third of the production produced in the United States and, in recent decades, its production has steadily increased, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. According to the agency, 40% of the total use of corn in the United States is related to the increasing production of ethanol. And Iowa is one of the major corn producing states.
However, since Trump took office, his EPA has granted 85 exemptions to petroleum refineries to stop mixing ethanol with their fuels – a staggering increase over previous administrations. The exemptions have been extended to giant oil companies such as Chevron and Exxon. As a result, more than a dozen ethanol plants have stopped or stopped their production across the country this year.
"Our request was destroyed by these small refinery exemptions, and that is what we really focus on with the administration to say," Listen, you really have to fix this problem. Your EPA has gone too far, "said Todd Becker, CEO of Green Plains, a major ethanol production company that operates 13 corn ethanol plants in the region.
Becker said his company had lost $ 150 million in profits in the past year. "The president is committed to solving this problem for us, so we depend on it," said Becker.
As a result of the waivers, ethanol and corn prices fell by 12% and 11%, respectively, which could result in "a massive $ 10 billion transfer of wealth from the agriculture and biofuels sectors to the world. 'petroleum industry', of the Renewable Fuels Association, organization, said in a statement last week. The organization also said the exemptions had reduced ethanol production by 2.6 billion gallons and more than 2,500 jobs had been lost in recent closures.
Thursday, the president tweeted on the ethanol industry, suggesting that it would announce an aid program to help farmers. The president did the same for soybeans hard hit by his trade war with China.
The Iowa Governor, Kim Reynolds, and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig, both Republicans, have sent a letter to the Administrator of Iowa. EPA, Andrew Wheeler, last week, urging the administration to reconsider the exemptions.
"The loss of these markets has had a devastating impact on rural families facing one of the most difficult years ever recorded," they said. "Ethanol consumption has declined for the first time in 20 years, commodities markets are depressed and many biofuel plants, including several in Iowa, have already slowed down or shut down. their production. "
Senator Chuck Grassley, an ally of the President, R-Iowa, also excoriated the administration about the waivers.
"They pissed us off when they released 31 waivers, against less than 10 forsakes for all the Obama years," he told Iowa Press's "Iowa Press" earlier this month. "What's bad is not the waiver, it's only granted to people who do not really experience difficulties."
During the election campaign in the 2016 presidential election, Mr. Trump said he would champion the renewable fuels standard and the role of the biofuels industries in the market.
US Secretary of Agriculture, Sonny Perdue, told farmers Wednesday at an event in Illinois that the waivers were "disappointing" and that Trump felt these waivers were "far too much" , according to the Associated Press.
The president, earlier this summer, also announced with fanfare in the Midwest that the administration would adopt a regulatory change allowing the sale of E15, a more highly concentrated fuel. But those working in the ethanol industry say the exemptions granted to oil refineries have offset these gains.
"A majority of farmers, regardless of their percentage, supported Trump when he said that he would attack China," said Brent Renner, a farmer from Klemme, in Iowa, at NBC News.
"So it's hard not to have the meaning of the word" rah-rah "when you hear someone who's going to do it." The downside of all of this is that we think and wish that it would have been handled differently. without using food as a weapon in this trade war ".
Vaughn Hillyard has been reported from Iowa and Dartunorro Clark of New York. Associated Press contributed to Iowa's reporting.
Associated press contributed.
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