Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor talked with veteran Iowa farm and biofuel leader Kelly Nieuwenhuis about the biofuel landscape and top priorities for the agricultural community in 2021. One of the issues highlighted was the recent rejection of 54 gap-year waivers by the Environmental Protection Agency.

“As a farmer and a biofuel producer,” Nieuwenhuis said, “it was a relief that the EPA decided to stop undermining the RFS and reject those 54 gap-year waivers. It was also disappointing that they were even on the plate after the 10th Circuit Court ruling that clarified the EPA had over abused their jurisdiction in granting those SRE’s to start with. I didn’t think we should have been going through this issue.”

While Nieuwenhuis feels the gap-year waiver rejection was encouraging, he says the EPA has much more work to do.

“We need to continue to hold the EPA’s feet to the fire because there are dozens of more gap waivers sitting at the EPA,” Nieuwenhuis said. “We need to make sure those are rejected and that the 10th Circuit Court ruling is used nationwide.”

Skor echoed the comments made by Nieuwenhuis, saying that the industry needs to close this chapter on demand destruction and look toward market growth, streamlined labeling, and the removal of infrastructure regulations.

“By our account – and again, the process isn’t transparent – we think there are still around 17 gap waiver requests and 33 other exemptions that (EPA) has to act on for 2019 and 2020,” Skor said. “Our work is far from done on the exemption front.”

Skor went on to say that Growth Energy remains committed to holding the administration accountable on key issues to help pave the way for even greater expansion of higher blends in the retail market.

Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.

Photo by Growth Energy