Political Quotes

“Mr. President, while reading through the pages of the Wall Street Journal last week, I was overcome with a sense of deja vu. As many of my colleagues have heard me speak on the Senate floor many times each year over the last several years about ethanol and about misconceptions about that, these misconceptions showed up in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal last week. Once again, in this case it happens to be chain restaurants and chicken producers teaming up to smear home-grown biofuel producers at the expense of energy independence and cleaner air. It seems as if every couple of years food producers and grocery manufacturers team up with Big Oil to try to undermine the extremely successful Renewable Fuel Standard Program. Here is a little history for everyone. In 2008, it was the big food producers led by the Grocery Manufacturers Association, because, presumably, in our economy, in our society, grocery manufacturers have more prestige than Big Oil. In 2010 and 2012, it was global integrated meat producers, led by Smithfield Foods and the American Meat Institute, presumably because they have more prestige than Big Oil. The opinion piece I am referring to in the Wall Street Journal this time was written by the head of the National Chicken Council and the National Council of Chain Restaurants. And under these circumstances, compared to the other two instances I cited, there is really no difference. They have prestige that Big Oil doesn't have.…”