Statewide Iowa — (RI) — Friday morning Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler released the details of the Trump administration’s agreement on how much ethanol will be blended with gasoline.
Wheeler says the agreement for what’s known as the Renewable Fuel Standard will address concerns about blending exceptions given small oil refineries.
Around 30 ethanol and biodiesel plants nationwide have either temporarily or permanently shut down in recent weeks, including four plants in Iowa, because of the uncertainty caused by the waivers. Wheeler says this plan should help those plants.
Wheeler says there are other things happening that will also help ethanol producers.
Iowa’s elected officials harshly criticized Wheeler following the granting of the refinery waivers. They are responding positively to today’s announcement. Senator Chuck Grassley praising the plan which Grassley says will “fix” the agency’s exemption process and help corn and soybean growers. Grassley, a Republican and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, says the president is “fighting for the farmer.”
The solution outlined Friday by the Trump administration is exactly how the RFS, is meant to function, according to Grassley.
While the RFS mandates that certain amounts of ethanol need to be blended into gasoline, the Trump administration granted 85 waivers to refineries, freeing them of the ethanol requirement. Grassley says the plan will “fix EPA’s exemption process and help farmers and biofuels producers going forward.”
The RFS requires 15-billion gallons of corn-based ethanol be blended into gasoline starting in 2020, but the waivers allowed refineries to refuse some four-billion gallons. Grassley says he’s satisfied with the new plan.
Iowa’s other Senator Joni Ernst calls the plan “great news for Iowa and rural America.” Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig calls the plan “welcome news for Iowa’s farmers, and the renewable fuel industry.
KIWA archive photo
