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Cruz/Northey/RINs stalemate continues

Texas Senator Ted Cruz continues to block a Senate vote on Iowa ag secretary Bill Northey’s nomination to become undersecretary for farm production and conservation in the USDA.

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley tells reporters he recently discussed the matter with Cruz.

“I had a discussion with Cruz for quite a few minutes on the Senate floor last week, but didn’t make much progress,” Grassley says. “We’re proceeding with other approaches that I don’t think I want to talk about right now. We’re trying to do everything we can to get it (Northey’s nomination) approved.”

Grassley says Cruz is sticking to his position that there needs to be a cap on the price of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs).

“And my position is that that’s going to destroy the ethanol industry and that there’s other ways around it—like the summer sale of E15, (which) will very much solve the RINs problem,” he says.

Cruz’s insistence on a RINs cap “makes negotiation a dead-end”, Grassley says.