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.
Senators Tom Harkin and Richard Lugar, key lawmakers from agricultural states, are working to change federal rules to help clear the way for biofuels pipelines to run from the Midwest to East Coast markets.
Harkin, D-Iowa, said regulations on publicly traded partnerships interested in developing such pipelines are heavily biased toward “depletable” fuels like traditional petroleum.
“This is an absurd situation,” Harkin said on a conference call.Harkin said legislation he’s crafted with Lugar, R-Ind., would remove certain barriers for publicly traded partnership to start moving ethanol and other biofuels from the production-rich Midwest to consumer-heavy cities on the East Coast. The legislation could be introduced as soon as Monday.
“It will jump start the development of biofuels pipelines,” Harkin said.
Harkin told reporters there already is interest from investors in a dedicated ethanol pipeline.
Magellan Midstream Partners and Buckeye Partners earlier this year announced a proposal for an ethanol pipeline system that would run from the Midwest to Northeast.
According to Magellan, the proposed pipeline would have the capacity to supply more than 10 million gallons of ethanol per day.
The pipeline would gather fuel from facilities in Iowa, lllinois, Minnesota and South Dakota to serve terminals in markets such as Philadelphia and New York.
Harkin said he has been working with New York lawmakers interested in finding ways to reduce energy costs for their constituents.
“They can get ethanol,” Harkin said. “This is the cheapest way to do it.”
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