This week America’s Renewable Future (ARF) launched an ad campaign targeted at presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz, who they say is against the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The #RFS has been under fire for several years and on Monday, after reviewing more than 270,000 public comments, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the final volumes for 2014, 2015 and 2016. While the numbers were higher than in the proposed rule, clean energy advocates are calling for the #EPA to raise the volumes of renewable fuel blended to statutory levels. Cruz, it would seem, is not one of those calling for strengthening the RFS.
The ad criticizes Cruz’s hypocritical position on oil subsidies and after airing for less than a week, the Cruz campaign has called on ARF to stop airing the ads. However, says ARF, the letter provides further example of his efforts to deceive Iowans about his support of oil subsidies. (Side note: ethanol does no longer receives subsidies and hasn’t for several years while the oil industry has been raking in the subsidies for more than 100 years.)
Cruz is claiming that subsidies exclusive to the oil industry, like intangible drilling costs, “are analogous to ordinary business expensing that every other industry gets”. He is calling subsidies by another name and hoping Iowans don’t catch on, says ARF. And now that he’s been caught, he’s claiming that he wants to get rid of oil subsidies, but he’s repeatedly told Iowa farmers and plant managers that those subsidies don’t exist. Cruz, ARF continues, is trying to have it both ways, acting like a typical politician, and it’s Iowa farmers who will suffer.
The speech in which Cruz mentions his support of ending “enhanced oil recovery credits for producing oil and gas from marginal wells” is meaningless considering that those provisions are inconsequential and taxpayers would see “no revenue effect” from them according to the Joint Committee on Taxation
“This attempt is yet another example of Cruz lying to Iowans, only this time he’s been caught,” said ARF State Director, Eric Branstad, “He has personally introduced legislation to repeal the RFS, but none to repeal the billions in subsidies to the oil industry. In fact, he’s voted repeatedly against measures to close tax loopholes for oil and gas.”
ARF says Cruz has close to a million dollars personally invested in oil companies, which is roughly equivalent to the over $1 million in campaign contributions he has received from the oil industry. The Super PACS propping up his campaign have received over $25 million from oil interests.
“Cruz is in the pocket of the oil industry and he’s doing its dirty work by trying to kill Iowa’s farm economy to line his own pockets,” Branstad added, “He’s oil’s attack dog and it’s time that Cruz came clean. We stand by our ad and so do the facts.”