Perry’s Ethanol Waver Request Prompted After $100,000 Contribution From Bo Pilgrim

[Perhaps this is for the 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments Of The Perry Administration? Go here to submit your favorites.]

The administration of Texas Governor Rick Perry is once again caught up in its own pay-to-play culture. This time, it appears as though Governor Perry’s recent request for a waiver of federal corn-based ethanol production mandates was a “thank you” to right-wing poultry king Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim.

Pilgrim met with Perry on March 25 and asked him to seek a waiver from the federal mandates. Six days later on March 31, Pilgrim donated $100,000 to the Republican Governor’s Association–a group which Perry chairs.

Then, on April 17 (no doubt with Perry’s assistance), Pilgrim had a closed-door audience with nine Republican governors during an energy conference in Grapevine.

On April 24, lobbyists for Pilgrim’s Pride and public relations folks from the Austin firm Public Strategies met with Perry’s staff to formalize the final details of the waiver request which was issued the next day.

Of course, Team Perry has an every-ready response for the situation:

Perry aide Allison Castle said political donors get nothing but “good government” from Perry. She said he asked for the waiver because of ethanol’s potential negative impact on livestock and poultry producers. Castle said Perry is scheduled to meet with EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson this month.

That’s a bit hard to buy. Why? Because Perry’s waiver request has national implications, as the Chronicle notes:

Perry’s April 25 waiver request has national implications because an EPA waiver of renewable fuel standards would affect all ethanol production in the United States, not just in Texas. On Monday, more than four dozen House Republicans made a similar plea to the EPA, asking for a reduction in ethanol production mandates.

Perry pressed for the waiver despite an April 10 Texas A&M study that showed a waiver of federal mandates on ethanol production would have little or no effect in driving down the price of feed corn for poultry and livestock. The A&M study blamed rising corn prices on the cost of oil, global demands for corn and commodities speculation.

At Perry’s request, A&M did a second study that was released in June. It found that if corn crops were short because of Midwestern flooding, a waiver would significantly lower corn prices.

Once again, an unsurprising bit of “pay to play” from the Governor’s office. This isn’t the first time Perry has been under the microscope for donations to the Republican Governors Association seemingly connected to his actions right here in Texas. It happened with Merck and the controversial HPV vaccine mandate last year.

Bookmark It