Potential presidential candidates for 2012 were already testing the waters in the all-important Hawkeye State this week, appearing at the 5th annual Iowa Renewable Fuels (IRFA) Summit.
Former speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich spoke to a full house of more than 700 at the summit in Des Moines on Tuesday. Gingrich supports all types of energy and strongly believes in the ability of modern agricultural technology to grow enough crops for all purposes. “The people who talk about food versus fuel are just plain flat wrong,” he said. He said if anyone is to blame for any food shortages, it is the European opposition to using genetically engineered crops.
Probably the biggest applause came when Gingrich gave his opinions on the U.S. EPA. “One of the things we are working on at (his action network) American Solutions is to develop an Environmental Solutions Agency to replace the Environmental Protection Agency,” he said.
Listen to or download Newt’s entire speech at IRFA here: Newt Gingrich at Iowa RFA Summit
Former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a conservative Republican who served two terms in the U.S. House and two terms in the Senate, closed out the summit by telling his story of being a biofuels convert.
“I looked at this issue differently, until 9/11,” Santorum said. “Post 9/11, I went from someone who was skeptical at best of developing domestic sources of energy, to being a grand proponent of such things,” he said. “My pledge to you is to work with this industry to create a bigger and bigger place in the market for domestically produced ethanol and biodiesel.”
Santorum served on the Senate Agriculture Committee during his time in office. “I was the first Pennsylvanian to serve on the agriculture committee in the United States Senate in over 100 years,” he said.
Listen to or download Santorum’s address at IRFA here: Rick Santorum at Iowa RFA Summit