Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 2/9/18

Sen. Chuck Grassley said something a little unusual during his weekly call with reporters on Tuesday. He criticized Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue for not being more vocal in support of the Renewable Fuel Standard in the spat over Sen. Ted Cruz 's hold on Bill Northey's nomination. Cruz wants to lower the cost of compliance credits for the program, which he says threaten blue-collar jobs in oil refineries. Pro Ag's Helena Bottemiller Evich and Pro Energy's Eric Wolff have the latest on what it all means here. 

What Grassley said: "What I think we need in the Department of Agriculture is a pro-ethanol person like [Agriculture Secretary Tom] Vilsack was," Grassley told reporters, adding that he thought Perdue should be making the argument for biofuels "instead of screwing around with the RFS."

An anxious corn belt: At first, it wasn't clear that Grassley meant to single out the former governor of Georgia, who doesn't set the standard for how much biofuel must be blended into the nation's fuel supply. But the senator quickly doubled down on his criticism, suggesting that Perdue and Pruitt may be both be out of step with President Donald Trump's support of the biofuel standard. It's a notable claim, considering how critical the RFS is to large swaths of the agriculture sector that also stokes long-running tensions between Midwestern and southern agricultural interests.

"Both of these people were appointed by the president of United States [who] is very much pro-ethanol," said Grassley, adding that Trump has called him directly to express support for ethanol. "I would say that Pruitt's more of a problem than the secretary of agriculture is, but we need people in the department of agriculture that speak up like Vilsack spoke up."