Trump says Cruz will destroy Iowa's ethanol industry

Politically minded Iowans are headed to their local caucus tonight, and in the Republican contest, the two leaders are Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. They've been attacking each other for a while now, but in the waning hours of the Iowa contest, Trump tried out a new attack: Cruz's stance on ethanol. Ethanol is a big deal in Iowa, as you probably know if you've read this far.

"The oil people don't want ethanol." - Donald Trump

Now, as we said the other day, there is a way to read Cruz's ethanol ideas as actually being in favor of more ethanol in the national fuel supply since he sees room for US gasoline supply with E25 (gasoline that has 25 percent ethanol in it). But Trump's attacks today painted a dire picture for the massive ethanol industry in the state should Cruz win. And with 47 percent of all the corn grown in Iowa going into ethanol production and thus the US gasoline supply, and the state responsible for nearly 30 percent of all the ethanol made in the US, this is a big issue in the state. According to Iowa Corn, ethanol is responsible for 47,000 jobs in Iowa and makes up $5 billion of Iowa's GDP.

What did Trump say Cruz would do as President? "He will destroy your ethanol business 100 percent," Trump said during a rally today, as quoted by TIME and The Hill. "And look, I'm not really blaming him because he's financed by oil people. The oil people don't want ethanol, it's very simple... Your ethanol business if Ted Cruz gets in will be wiped out within six months to a year. It's gonna be gone."