More Presidential Hopefuls Embracing Ethanolism

As the Wall Street Journal noted earlier this week, potential 2012 GOP presidential nominees are making the rounds in Iowa singing the praises of renewable fuels. Newt Gingrich was a particularly egregious example. The latest to jump ship is former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania. He embraced the 9/11 national security meme, while giving us his historical take of what he deems the “radicalization” of Islam and the necessity of a smart, “independent” energy policy:

Santorum believes that domestic production of renewable liquid fuels in critical to this country’s national security. “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, a conservative Republican who served two terms in the U.S. House and two terms in the Senate, is considering a run for president in 2012 — as is former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich who also spoke at the IRFA event this week.

As this blog notes, while in the Senate Rick Santorum voted against ethanol subsidies. So while Al Gore recently gave up ethanolism, we have a whole host of presidential hopefuls embracing the fuel. Consider this speech his first penance, with many more to come.

Meanwhile, the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee is putting ethanol under the microscope.