Washington, DC — There’s strong, negative reaction from Iowa politicians and the state’s biofuels industry to this week’s EPA decision on the Renewable Fuels Standard.
That’s Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. In September, corn belt lawmakers like Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst said President Trump had agreed to make up for waivers that let some oil refineries use less ethanol and biodiesel. EPA officials on Thursday said their 2020 proposal will make up for that lost demand and they will follow the Department of Energy recommendations on how many oil refinery waivers to grant next year. Shaw has his doubts.*
Governor Kim Reynolds says the EPA’s actions continue to disappoint the people of Iowa, as biofuels plants close and farmers lose an important market.
A northwest Iowa farmer who was at the White House earlier this week says he’s disappointed President Trump has failed to uphold the renewable fuels deal he agreed to in September.
That’s Kelly Nieuwenhuis, a farmer from Primghar. Nieuwenhuis and four other Iowans met with Larry Kudlow, the president’s top economic advisor, on Tuesday — and Kudlow provided a briefing on the EPA’s final decision on the ethanol production mandate.
Nieuwenhuis was at the White House with representatives from the Iowa Corn Growers and the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Nieuwenhuis says the group made it clear to Kudlow the EPA’s 2020 biofuels blending requirements are “woefully inadequate.”
Nieuwenhuis says Senator Grassley set up the meeting with the president’s economic advisor, so the Iowans could make a last-minute pitch for changing the E-P-A’s plan for ethanol and biodiesel.
Nieuwenhuis says it’s frustrating the president didn’t keep his promise.
Nieuwenhuis is chairman of the board of Siouxland Energy. The ethanol plant in Sioux Center shut down for a few weeks, but has been running this fall at about half its normal capacity.
