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.
A recently introduced bill could have far-reaching impact on the U.S. sugar industry, including American Crystal Sugar, a farmer-owned cooperative that locked out 1,300 Midwest workers on Aug. 1.
The chairman for Herman Cain’s Iowa effort says the campaign “relied more on the word of farmers than Washington regulators” in deciding to run an ad containing claims the Environmental Protection Agency says are false.
The Iowa Senate will remain under the control of a slim 26-25 Democratic majority when it reconvenes in January 2012.
In a flurry of activity Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed a new version of an energy bill that will raise fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks and give a big boost to renewable fuels. The bill easily passed the Senate on a vote of 86-8.
But the energy bill that passed was merely a shadow of its former self, as a 15 percent renewable electricity standard and provisions for new taxes on oil companies were stripped out.
Ethanol and biodiesel producers will have plenty to celebrate, as the bill calls for the use of 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022, a significant increase from the approximately 5 billion gallons of ethanol last year. Under the bill, 21 billion gallons of biofuels will be required to come from sources other than corn-based ethanol by 2022.
The bill will raise fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks for the first time since the 1970s. Fleet-wide fuel economy will be raised to 35 miles per gallon, up from today's level of 25 mpg.
President Bush, who had threatened to veto the bill last week, is signaling that he will sign the bill now that the tax increases and renewable electricity standard have been removed.
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