October 19, 2017

The Power of King Corn

Sen. Grassley threatens to sideline Trump’s nominees if the EPA scales back the ethanol mandate.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, recently hinted at scaling back the onerous ethanol mandate associated within the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). This news prompted Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to threaten that, should Pruitt pursue scaling back the mandate, Donald Trump’s EPA nominees would essentially be prevented from receiving confirmation. An example of cronyism at its worst.

It’s tough to drain the swamp when politicians are more concerned with protecting the special interests of their big money donors than the freedoms of the constituents who have elected them. The ethanol mandate has been a boon for King Corn but little more than troublesome for everyone else, including the environment (which the RFS was ostensibly created to protect). In short, the ethanol mandate is one of the nation’s biggest boondoggles.

But Grassley’s threat was also a veiled threat aimed at Trump’s judicial nominees. As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Grassley can effectively sideline any vote on nominees. Grassley has put the squeeze on Trump, and Trump responded. On Wednesday, the White House ordered the EPA to put a hold on any changes to the ethanol mandate. King Corn wins again. Like Barack Obama did with “Clean Energy” and his war on coal, the government picking winners and losers is not what Americans need or want. Sadly, too many Republicans are guilty of playing this same crony game for which they blasted Obama.

End the corruption. End the ethanol mandate. Let ethanol stand on its own in the free market without the government artificially propping it up. As destructive and inefficient as it is, though, its defenders know that’s not possible. Thus the continued cronyism.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.