Culver: Super PAC attacking Iowa’s renewable energy industry
Source: Jennifer Jacobs, Des Moines Register • Posted: Tuesday, May 8, 2012
The conservative Americans for Prosperity has an agenda that’s contrary to Iowa’s bipartisan-backed renewable energy economy, said Culver, a former governor of Iowa.
“The big oil interests that are behind this PAC clearly see renewable energy and biofuels as a threat,” Culver told reporters during a conference call, “so they have decided to back a candidate that is against fuel efficiency standards, that doesn’t want to end loopholes and tax breaks for big oil companies, and that’s Governor Romney.”
Romney has been on the record in support of E-15, a blend of gasoline and ethanol.
A memo from the Iowa Democratic Party today noted that the PAC has said it will “educate the public on the viability of alternative energy sources and the facts about our own domestic energy resources.
Americans for Prosperity is running TV ads in Iowa and other swing states. The PAC is backed by billionaire industrialists David and Charles Koch.
I’m very disappointed AFP chose to be in Iowa this morning to attack Iowa renewable energy jobs and the Iowa renewable energy industry,” Culver said on the conference call.
Culver pointed out that the Washington Post’s fact-checkers found the ads the super PAC has been running are blatantly false and misleading.
Iowa Democrats and Republicans have worked together for years to promote renewable energy –and it has helped the economy, Culver said.
Iowa is the nation’s largest producer of ethanol, the second-largest wind producer, and the No. 1 state for wind jobs, he said.
As governor, Culver focused on renewable energy jobs, and was the chairman of the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition and the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition. He now runs a Des Moines-based consulting firm, the Chet Culver Group, that guides governments and private entities on renewable energy projects.