![]() In an August speech on the House floor, Hinson decried the Inflation Reduction Act as “wasting hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on Green New Deal priorities.” ![]() bioenergy sector, leave a wake of stranded investments, and undermine the rural communities that are leading the low-carbon energy transition,” he said in a statement.īut when Democrats' marquee climate legislation came before House Republicans last year, they all opposed it, often in strenuous terms. “Repealing those incentives midstream would rip the rug out from underneath the U.S. Geoff Cooper, president of ethanol lobbyist Renewable Fuels Association, pointed to investments in agriculture communities across the country as he warned against the repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax provisions this week. A series of projects aimed at producing sustainable jet fuel have been announced, and plans are underway for a pair of carbon sequestration pipelines, which tap into tax credits by capturing carbon dioxide at ethanol refineries and pumping it to sites where it can be stored underground. The impact of the spending is noticeable all across the region. As auto manufacturers move towards electric cars, the next generation of the ethanol industry will revolve around manufacturing sustainable aviation fuel. Incentives in the Biden bill, which Democrats called the Inflation Reduction Act, have spurred growth in the production of ethanol and biofuels, said Tristan Brown, director of the Bioeconomy Development Institute at SUNY College of Environmental Science & Forestry. Kim Reynolds, a Republican who also lobbied for the carve-out, said in a statement this week. The biofuel industry contributes over $6 billion to Iowa’s economy and uses 60% of the corn it produces, Iowa Gov. ![]() Ashley Hinson, an Iowa Republican who fought to save the energy provisions. “I’m thrilled everyone is talking about biofuels,” said Rep. The Iowa Republicans railed against the $740 billion price tag of Democratic priorities like the Inflation Reduction Act last year, which extended tax breaks for clean energy projects.īut the federal assistance for energy is popular back home in the Corn Belt, where a boom in energy projects is underway. “It’s not the final provisions and there’s a number of members that will vote for it going forward and say there are some concerns they have.”įor the Republicans who adamantly defended the tax incentives, the political turnaround was especially stark. “This bill is to get us to the negotiating table,” McCarthy said ahead of the vote this week. ![]() The dust-up also amounts to a warning of sorts for GOP leaders as they seek a debt-limit deal with Biden, showing that attempts to slash government programs could quickly face opposition in their own ranks. The episode highlighted how, even as Republicans decry the massive spending packages passed under President Joe Biden, their opposition to federal spending often fades when it comes to money flowing to their communities. The concession amounted to a $38.6 billion carve-out to safeguard the incentives for biofuels, carbon capture projects and the ethanol industry, and helped the bill pass by a narrow 217-215 margin. The bloc of lawmakers, with Iowa's four Republicans at its core, forced McCarthy to make revisions to the legislation in the hours before it headed to a floor vote, even after the speaker had insisted changes were off the table. They were on a mission to preserve billions of dollars in federal support for biofuels and ethanol. WASHINGTON (AP) - House Republicans are touting their debt limit package as a first step toward fiscal restraint, saying it’s past time for Congress to reduce the swelling deficits that they warn are threatening the fiscal health of the country.īut when a group of Midwestern Republicans went marching this week into the office of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it wasn’t spending cuts they wanted to talk about.
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