Herseth Sandlin Among Top 100 in Bioenergy

Depending on your position on biofuels, the following may constitute a slim voting issue in South Dakota's Congressional race. Biofuels Digest includes Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin in its Top 100 People in Bioenergy. Our Congresswoman is listed at #30 alongside Rep. Collin Peterson of Minnesota and Rep. Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota.

Now Kristi Noem is able to wander through talking points on ethanol, too, but Herseth Sandlin is the recognized leader in promoting biofuels. If you dig biofuels, you probably stick with Herseth Sandlin's recognized performance rather than taking the chance that Noem will get out her GOP-Big Oil knives and gut government support for ethanol. And if you don't dig biofuels, you go for Noem and hope you can talk her back into the Republican free-market fundamentalism that would get her to reject government support for ethanol. (But good luck getting Noem to forswear subsidies).

Other persons of South Dakota interest on the Biofuels Digest list:

• Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, our neighbor from Iowa, is #1. The "runaway winner" in the poll on which this list is based, Secretary Vilsack "has been driving hard to implement a strong biofuels policy on behalf of the Obama Administration." Yes, that's President Obama, doing things most South Dakotans like. Hmmm....
  
• Jeff Broin of Poet Ethanol is #2. He knows who butters his bread: he's donated $1000 to Herseth Sandlin this year... and $1500 to Ohio Rep. John Boehner... and $30,400 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
  
• Senators John Thune and Tim Johnson make the list at #33 alongside their colleagues Charles Grssely from Iowa and Jeff Bingaman from New Mexico.
• Coolest name on the list: at #99, Hunt Ramsbottom of Rentech.

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Bonus Across-the-Aisle Advice: Hey, Kristi: wouldn't your position on ethanol be an easy write-up for your non-existent Agriculture Issues webpage?