Wednesday was a difficult day for The American Independent News Network, which is the larger entity that operates The Iowa Independent. Our chief executive and founder announced two of our sister sites would close and their content would be moved to The American Independent.
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Bob Krause
Democratic Senate hopeful Tom Fiegen‘s opposition to ethanol subsidies will make it difficult for him to win over rural voters this fall against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, according to one of Fiegen’s rivals for the nomination.
Bob Krause, a former state lawmaker from Fairfield, criticized Fiegen’s comments about ethanol and biodiesel subsidies that he made during a recent taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press.” When asked about the subsidies, Fiegen simply replied, “Baloney, baloney,” later adding that despite being subsidized by the federal government, ethanol plants are “still failing in bankruptcy.”
Krause responded Tuesday, saying Fiegen was trying to “pull the plug on the ethanol and biodiesel industry,” which would “hurt the nation as a whole, as well as Iowa.”
“While subsidies to private industries are not to be encouraged, the ethanol and biodiesel industries are part of a national strategic effort to wean this nation from oil,” Krause said. “In this context, who can say that our trillion dollar involvement in the Middle East, as well as the economic ruin of the Louisiana shrimpers on the Gulf, are not subsidies to big oil that far exceed anything put into the emerging ethanol and biodiesel industry.
“In conclusion, I call for Mr. Fiegen to eat his baloney sandwich, and not play with the lives and fortunes of those in rural Iowa who are dependent on the emergent ethanol and biodiesel industries,” he said.
Fiegen, Krause and Des Moines attorney Roxanne Conlin will face off in the June 8 Democratic primary.
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