Ethanol is a public policy disaster of the first order.  Even accepting the premise that CO2 is harmful to the global climate (which it isn’t), ethanol does no good, at enormous cost.  The amount of CO2 generated by producing it is enormous – because ethanol requires lots of trucks and railroad cars to transport, because its production is energy-intensive, and because it produces CO2 itself in combustion.

Meanwhile, it deteriorates car parts; gets lower mileage than gasoline (so consumes more fuel for the same amount of driving); costs consumers more; and, by raising corn prices globally, causes third-world people to starve.  Greenies lied; people died.

But it does enrich Iowa corn farmers.  Hence, until Ted Cruz showed that it is possible to oppose the ethanol mandate and survive popular Governor Terry Branstad’s opposition, the GOP has failed to oppose it with sufficient vigor.

Best of all: Those who pandered got defeated.  Stephen Kruiser explains at PJ Media:

Trump and his supporters like to portray him as tapping into the zeitgeist over business as usual on Capitol Hill. Trump, however, is an opportunist and many who aren't caught up in the cult-like fever surrounding him know that many of those opportunities have had more than a hint of Washington cronyism to them.

Conservatives in the Republican electorate aren't just angry about the party's awful performance on immigration, we're sick of the abuse of the American taxpayer in the pursuit of bloating the federal bureaucracy. It's painful to be the adult and begin actually saying no.

Ted Cruz said "no" and it didn't hurt him. Yes, Marco Rubio's third place performance was a big story tonight, but not as big as the ethanol lobby coming up woefully short on its home turf.

Media hacks are already dismissing Cruz, trying to lump him in with Huckabee in 2008 and Santorum in 2012. The difference is, all of Cruz's eggs (read: money) aren't in the Iowa basket. He still has plenty of money, as well as highly functional organizations, especially in the "SEC Primary" states.

Maybe the Cruz victory can start a trend of letting the Democrats deal exclusively with path-of-least-resistance pandering and Republicans listening to their constituents who want a fiscal grown-up in the White House.

OK, Trump and all the others: Time to wake up and stop pandering on ethanol and global warming.