“Devastating” is the way longtime ethanol backer and U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley views the impact on the corn ethanol industry of California’s decision to ban the sale of combustion engine vehicles in 2035.
It’s the largest U.S. car market, the biggest consumer of gasoline and ethanol and the emissions standard setter for 15-other states, that with California cover more than one-third of all new vehicles sold in the United States.
So, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says, if California goes ahead with its plan to ‘step on the brakes’ for new combustion vehicle sales by 2035. Grassley; “It would be devastating for the ethanol industry. That would be 46,000 jobs lost in Iowa.”
With of course, a huge hit to corn growers. And the same for the President’s plans to phase out gas-powered vehicles. Grassley; “Whether it’s national, by the president, or whether it’s California, are very unrealistic, as I see it today.”
Referring to both the cost and technical hurdles EV buyers still face. At the Renewable Fuels Association, CEO Geoff Cooper; “It is a falsehood to suggest that an electric vehicle is a zero emissions vehicle, just because it doesn’t have a tailpipe. When you plug that vehicle into the wall that is charging that battery, is coming from somewhere…and, in many cases today, that somewhere is a coal-fired power plant or a natural gas plant.”
Senator Grassley says the only thing that can save ethanol if a third of the states ban liquid fueled vehicles is possibly still-being developed aviation biofuel.
