However, after Bush sat down with Rastetter, listeners were left debating what he’d actually said.
Bush said that the RFS “has worked, for sure” and “has been a benefit” because it has “reduced our dependence on foreign oil.” But he also gave a nod to the more conservative elements of the GOP who oppose government support for industry and corporations.
“I would suggest to you that ultimately, whether it’s ethanol or any other alternative fuel, renewable or otherwise, the markets ultimately are going to decide this,” Bush said. “At some point we’ll see a reduction of the RFS need because ethanol will be such a valuable part of the energy piece of our country. Whether that’s 2022 or sometime in the future I don’t know.”
That sounded like a knock on the RFS. But Couser, Shaw and other renewable fuel advocates noted that the law actually requires the phasing out of the RFS in 2022.
Immediately after Bush finished speaking, Craig Robinson, a widely read conservative blogger who runs the Iowa Republican website, said he thought Bush was coming down ever so slightly against the RFS in a play for hardcore conservatives.
“Bush didn’t come out and say that he outright opposed the Renewable Fuel Standard and wind tax credit, but he didn’t embrace them either. Bush essentially took a similar position to Senators Ted Cruz and Rand Paul by saying that ultimately the market should decide,” Robinson wrote in an e-mail.
