In a shocking display of blatant pandering for votes, John Edwards wants to force-feed Iowa ethanol to the American economy, whether it wants it or not. Any effect on his standing in the Iowa caucuses is purely coincidental, of course. Sure it is. Tom Doggett reports for Reuters:
At a campaign appearance in California, Edwards said he would force oil companies to install ethanol pumps at a quarter of their service stations and require automakers to build cars that can run on biofuels.
The full article is at the link above. Naturally, Edwards doesn't care that ethanol use doesn't help "global warming," since its production and consumption releases as much or more CO2 as petroleum products do. They don't have oil in Iowa, they have corn and Archer Daniels Midland and a burning thirst for subsidy.
If his draconian proposals place outrageous costs on gas stations and automakers, what does he care? They should have moved up their primary date . . .
In the early part of this century, Iowa was plagued by snake-oil salesmen hawking nostrums which not only didn't help, but which were harmful or even fatal. Some things never change.
UPDATE: Yeah, I know he was in California when he said it. I'm sure the watermelon environmentalist constituency out there was receptive, too, but he wanted it heard back in Iowa. And it will be.
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Filed under:
2008 Presidential Race, Democrats, Edwards, Iowa, Primaries
Tags: Edwards, iowa, policy
