--- title: Republican Debate: How Ted Cruz Tried to Reframe Ethanol description: Under fire in Iowa for his position on ethanol, Ted Cruz slams a little known EPA rule called the "blend wall." canonical: https://time.com/4199339/republican-debate-ted-cruz-ethanol/ author: Haley Sweetland Edwards article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-29T06:00:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:41:30.309Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ted Cruz Throws a Hail Mary on Ethanol og:description: Under fire, he gets wonky. og:url: https://time.com/4199339/republican-debate-ted-cruz-ethanol/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3021b6b15d52e0dd/69887b305f570f1cebb1f66d/republican-presidential-debate-gop-jan-28-14.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3483 og:image:height: 1959 og:image:alt: Ted Cruz og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ted Cruz Throws a Hail Mary on Ethanol twitter:description: Under fire, he gets wonky. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3021b6b15d52e0dd/69887b305f570f1cebb1f66d/republican-presidential-debate-gop-jan-28-14.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Ted Cruz Tried to Reframe the Ethanol Debate > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=06708f6d-9cbd-4ba9-94c9-e322d63bce59&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch The Republican Debate in Under 4 Minutes [Watch (HLS stream): Watch The Republican Debate in Under 4 Minutes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/yAWlwSjX.m3u8) (3:34)  _Published 2016-01-29. GOP Debate-012816-v1_  by [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/)  ## Haley Sweetland Edwards Jan 29, 2016 6:00 AM UTC  by [Haley Sweetland Edwards](https://time.com/author/haley-sweetland-edwards/)  ## Haley Sweetland Edwards Jan 29, 2016 6:00 AM UTC [Under fire for his position on ethanol](http://time.com/4186455/iowa-caucus-ted-cruz-ethanol/), Ted Cruz chose the last Republican debate before the Iowa caucus to throw a Hail Mary, diving deep into the weeds of federal gas policy. The Texas Senator defended his controversial position opposing federal subsidies for the corn industry, the crop used to make ethanol, and instead doubled down on an obscure Environmental Protection Agency regulation, known as the “blend wall” that caps the amount of ethanol that U.S. refiners can blend into gasoline. Hot on the heels of frontrunner Donald Trump in the all-important early caucus state, Cruz has been pilloried for his opposition to government subsidies for corn, a stance long considered a third rail for anyone hoping to woo the [corn capital of the midwest](http://www.worldofcorn.com/#us-corn-production-by-state). On Thursday night, Cruz defended his position on conservative, anti-big-government grounds, saying he opposes _all_ federal subsidies across the energy sector, period. “We should be developing oil, and gas, and coal, and nuclear, and wind, and solar, and ethanol, and biofuels,” Cruz explained. “But, I don’t believe that Washington should be picking winners and losers. And, I think there should be no mandates, and no subsidies whatsoever.” Cruz then launched into an arcane argument designed to appeal to a narrow cadre of conservative, pro-ethanol Iowa voters. He promised to eliminate the EPA’s “blend wall”—a move that would allow refiners to blend more ethanol into the U.S. gasoline supply. The idea has [garnered support](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-01/there-goes-the-blend-wall-keeping-more-ethanol-out-of-gasoline) from some of the biggest ethanol producers in the state, the anti-regulatory Tea Party, as well as [Iowa Congressman Steve King](http://www.teaparty.org/iowas-gop-governor-wants-cruz-defeated-139998/). “I will tear down the EPA’s blend wall which will enable ethanol to expand its market share by up to 60%, all without mandates,” Cruz said. The oil and gas industry opposes the elimination of the blend wall. The American Petroleum Institute, which represents oil giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, has long argued that ethanol-rich gasoline is potentially harmful to engines and catalytic converters. In November, the EPA allowed refiners to blend 14.5 billion gallons of ethanol into gasoline this year—a record high. The rule marks the first time that refiners were allowed to include more than 10% of ethanol in the U.S. gasoline supply. But the voters that Cruz was targeting in that brief but wonky detour already knew all that. It remains to be seen whether the defense will work. Cruz has been doing well in Iowa [despite his disdain for ethanol subsidies](http://time.com/4186455/iowa-caucus-ted-cruz-ethanol/), but as he takes fire in the remaining days before the Iowa caucuses, it’s clear he was hoping to take the issue off the table. ## Transcript Welcome to the seventh Republican presidential debate. I'm a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly. And Ben, you're a terrible surgeon. [ LAUGH ] Now that we've gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way. [ LAUGH ] He's an entertaining guy, he's the greatest show on earth. I have not insulted Donald personally and I don't intend to. I kind of Donald Trump, he was a little teddy bear to me. I want to thank Everyone here for showing the men and women of Iowa the respect, to show up and make the case to the people of this state and people of the country why each of us believe we would make the best Commander- in- Chief. I've been held accountable for six years of the Governor of New Jersey. And with a Democratic legislature, I've gotten conservative Things done. That is exactly what I'll do as a president of United States. The ball collection of your phone data. The invasion of your privacy did not stop one terrorist attack. I don't think you have to give up your liberty for a fall sense of security. We cannot fix these things in this country. The sole security, the boarder Balancing the budget. Getting wages to grow faster. Unless we lead as conservatives, but we also invite people in from the other party. We need people who think out of the box, and can solve problems. The last four questions have been, Rand please attack Ted. Marco please attack Ted. Chris please attack Ted. Jeb please attack Ted. It is a debate, sir. If you guys ask one more mean question I may have to leave the stage. You cannot destroy ISIS with a military that's being diminished. When I'm President we are rebuilding the U. S. military because the world is a safer and a better place. When America's the strongest military in the world. You claim it is tough talk to discuss carpet bombing. It is not tough talk. It is a different fundamental military strategy than what we've seen from Barack Obama. We need to arm directly to Kurds, embed our troops with the Iraqi military, re- engage with the Sunni tribal leaders, get the lawyers off the damn backs of the military once and for all. Arming the allies of ISIS will make the situation worse. Then what we really need to do is defeat ISIS, but if you defeat Assad, what you will wind up with is a larger and more powerful ISIS that occupies that space. If there were someplace in this country where radical Jihadists are planning to attack the United States, we will go after them wherever they are, and if we capture them alive, They are going to Guantanamo. And if you wanna defend the country, it begins with border security, and this is where I've had my disagreement with Senator Rubio. You can't be in favor of defending us against Islam, radical Islam, if you're not for border security. I will support law Law enforcement and we will stop radical terrorist attacks in this country by supporting out intelligence community and our law enforcement community. We need to stop allowing political correctness to dictate our policies. We are a nation of immigrants. As such, everyone is welcome, from any race, any country, any religion if they wanna be Americans. We are not gonna round up and deport 12 million people but we are not gonna go around handing out citizenship cards either. Nations will have to make a choice. They can do business with Iran or they can do business with America. And I am very confident that they're going to choose America before they choose the Iranian economy. If we find out they're developing a nuclear weapon and we know how to get to it We're gonna go take it out. What we need to do is make sure that the war on drugs is equal protection under the law and that we don't unfairly incarcerate another generation of young African American males. Get rid of Planned Parenthood funding for the United States of America. [ APPLAUSE ] Bernie Sanders is a socialist. I think Bernie Sanders is a good candidate for president of Sweden. Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being the Commander and Chief of the United States. 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