CEDAR FALLS -- Democrat gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver suggested Tuesday that he is the champion of alternative fuels and that his opponent, Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Nussle, was slow to religion on the issue -- a charge Nussle's campaign denies.

Culver toured Cedar Falls Utilities' Streeter Station power plant Monday to look at CFU's initiatives on burning biomass there.

While CFU officials were interested in tax credits and other incentives to aid their initiative, Culver used the visit to draw attention to an overall alternative fuels plan in his campaign platform. It includes a "Power Fund" for altenative-energy initiatives such as CFU's.

In a subsequent meeting with the Courier's editorial board, Culver suggested it is he, not Nussle, who has taken more of an initiative in promoting alternative fuels.

"Congressman Nussle's record does not suggest he's been a proponent of alternative fuels," Culver said. "In fact, during the mid-'90s when the ethanol industry needed him most, he was not there for them. Congressman Jim Ross Lightfoot, in fact, was quoted as saying he sold them out when they needed him the most."

The same charge was made against Nussle by his opponent in his 1996 congressional re-election bid, Democrat Donna Smith, a Dubuque County supervisor, in a televised forum on Iowa Public Television's "Iowa Press" program.

According to a Sept. 29, 1996, Courier article, Smith charged that Nussle had "sold out Iowa" by voting on the House Ways and Means Committee in 1995 for a measure that included scaling back the ethanol subsidy. It took Iowa's other Republicans in Congress, along with Gov. Terry Branstad, to override that "big oil" vote, she said. Smith said even Lightfoot, a fellow Republican, said Nussle "sold out Iowa" with that vote.

"His record, once again, is a little different that the rhetoric we're now seeing on the campaign trail for governor," Culver said. "And so I've always had the high ground on alternative energy and renewable fuels. I was the first candidate to come out with this Power Fund (alternative energy incentive) plan, and I was the first candidate to talk about Iowa's great opportunity to help fuel the world.

"So I'm glad Congressman Nussle agrees with me in terms of the great potential that we have to be a national leader, but if you look at the record over the course of the campaign, our campaign was out front early on this exciting issue," Culver said.

Culver did not mention Nussle's response to Smith's 1996 accusation. At that time, and on the same "Iowa Press" program, Nussle replied that while Lightfoot disagreed with his strategy, it turned out to be successful: voting for a larger bill that contained the anti-ethanol provision -- one of many sections -- and then persuading GOP leadership to save the subsidy.

"I happened to not only get (then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich) to change his mind on ethanol, but was in the room when the governor (Branstad) called the speaker," Nussle was quoted as saying in the 1996 forum. "I told him, not only should he take the call, but we ought to have a meeting with the delegation so that we can work as a team to solve the problem with ethanol."

An Oct. 9, 1996, Courier article reported Iowa Farm Bureau leaders thanked Lightfoot and Nussle for their support for the federal ethanol subsidy and the then-new Freedom to Farm law. Farm Bureau leaders made the comments at a Waterloo press conference with Lightfoot during his unsuccessful campaign that year against U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin.

To Culver's new statements, Nussle spokesman Maria Cormella responded, "It's almost laughable that Chet Culver is in such desperate shape that he's resorted to negative attacks on Jim Nussle's proven track record for Iowa ethanol. Jim's been a champion for ethanol and at the forefront of making Iowa the renewable energy capital of the world for the last 16 years.

"In fact, we're reaping the fruits of Jim's labor and well-placed tax incentives for ethanol development with 24 plants now on-line, producing 1.5 billion gallons of Iowa ethanol each year," Cormella said. "With the Iowa Farm Bureau and Iowa Corn Growers throwing their full support behind Jim Nussle's candidacy for governor, it seems Chet Culver has resorted to sour grapes and negative attacks to cover-up his inexperience and incompetence for Iowa's farmers and our economy."

Contact Pat Kinney at (319) 291-1484 or Pat.Kinney@wcfcourier.com