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by Alex Guillén (Politico’s Morning Energy) EPA’s internal watchdog is being asked to determine how the agency decided to grant the vast majority of exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard that oil refiners have requested.
EPA approved 31 petitions for waivers from the 2018 requirements, while rejecting just six, and corn-state lawmakers have howled at what they see as special favors for the oil industry. Freshman Iowa Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne (D-Iowa) today will call for an inspector general investigation into how EPA decided to expand the number of waivers it issued since Trump came into office. She will hold her press conference at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, an ethanol producer in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the same plant where Trump touted his action expanding sales of 15 percent ethanol.
Trump wants backsies: Trump is seeking to mollify corn farmers who are furious at the waivers, according to a Reuters report Tuesday. He personally approved EPA’s decision to go ahead with the 31 waivers earlier this month, but in a two-hour-long Cabinet meeting, Trump told his staff to figure out a way to pacify the farmers. According to a refinery industry source, the president asked EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler if he could take the exemptions back and was told he could not.
EPA says no harm, no foul: Citing data from the Energy Information Administration, EPA said the U.S. had been setting records for both ethanol production and exports. “There is zero evidence that EPA’s congressionally mandated small refinery exemption program, which provides regulatory relief to small refineries around the country, has had any negative impact on domestic corn ethanol producers,” EPA spokesman Michael Abboud said in a statement. EPA says it follows a process prescribed by law in granting the waivers.
Nonetheless, POET, the largest U.S. ethanol producer, said Tuesday it idled an Indiana plant due to the waivers. “Our industry invested billions of dollars based on the belief that oil could not restrict access to the market and EPA would stand behind the intent of the Renewable Fuel Standard,” POET CEO Jeff Broin said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the oil industry is manipulating the EPA and is now using the RFS to destroy demand for biofuels.” READ MORE
Trump EPA says ‘zero evidence’ of biofuel waivers hurting ethanol producers (Reuters)
U.S. biofuel credit prices jump on news of Trump meeting on farmer anger: traders (Reuters)
Trump Seeks to Allay Farm-State Uproar in Oval Office Meeting (Bloomberg)
Trump White House seeks to assuage farmer unrest over biofuel policy: sources (Reuters)
Trump reportedly orders his cabinet to calm farmers’ anger over new biofuel exemptions they lobbied against (Markets Insider)
Ernst: EPA policy on ethanol leading to concern Midwest way of life “under attack” (CBS2 Iowa Fox 28; includes VIDEO)
Rep. Axne to call for federal investigation into EPA’s biofuel waiver process (Fence Post)
Oil donors shy on Trump’s 2020 campaign, for now (Houston Chronicle)
EPA gives ethanol a gut punch (Kearney Hub)
STU ELLIS: Bad timing for biofuels (Herald & Review)
Marquis Energy to cut ethanol production rates at Wisconsin plant -CEO (Reuters)
RFA Statement on EPA and Demand Destruction from Refinery Exemptions (Renewable Fuels Association)
The EPA continues to undermine biodiesel … and we’ve had enough (Biodiesel Magazine)
Excerpt from Bloomberg: Incentives for flex-fuel vehicles, high-ethanol fuel on table; Trump allies in oil and agriculture clash on biofuel mandates READ MORE
Excerpt from Reuters: Farmers bearing the brunt of Trump’s trade war with China say his support of the hardship waivers has destroyed ethanol demand.
“For the first time in my life I’ll vote for a Democrat, for Joe Biden, because Trump will have lied to us about supporting ethanol,” Mark Marquis, CEO of Illinois ethanol producer Marquis Energy, said in an interview on Tuesday. “I feel misled and lied to, quite frankly.”
…
The nation’s largest ethanol producer, POET, announced on Tuesday it was cutting production at its plants and blamed the hardship waivers for the move.
“POET made strategic decisions to support President Trump’s goal of boosting the farm economy,” POET President and COO Jeff Lautt said. “However, these goals are contradicted by bailouts to oil companies.”
…
One option advocated by the biofuel industry is to raise the annual amount of ethanol required to be blended into the nation’s fuel pool, or to add back the waived volume onto the annual consumption mandate that the EPA had proposed to set at 15 billion gallons for 2020. No proposals were agreed upon.
Prior to Trump’s election, just a few smaller refineries were granted relief from this requirement. Trump’s administration has vastly expanded those waivers, including granting relief to facilities run by major oil companies Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N). Trump personally directed the EPA to grant the most recent waivers, sources told Reuters.
“Not only is the government not keeping its word, but it’s also screwing the farmer when we have low prices for (corn),” said Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, on a weekly conference call to discuss agricultural issues.
…
The EPA granted the exemptions just as Democratic candidates hoping to challenge Trump in 2020 visited the Iowa State Fair, where they sought to position themselves as fighters for ethanol.
Kelly Nieuwenhuis, a third-generation corn and soybean farmer from O’Brien County, Iowa, said he voted for Trump in 2016 but his support for the president is waning.
“I have talked to a bunch of farmers in the past few days, and they are fed up. They are not going to vote for Elizabeth Warren, but they said they are not going to vote for Trump, so they will sit this out,” Nieuwenhuis said in an interview on Monday. READ MORE
Excerpt from CBS 2 Iowa Fox 28: Sen. Ernst admitted the trade war is having an impact, but is confident that the Trump Administration can get a better deal from China once a resolution is complete. Sen. Ernst also expressed her desire to pass the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. The trade deal must be ratified by Congress before it can take effect.
But the biggest focus at the plant, which is a big player in the biofuels industry, was the Trump Administration’s decision to grant 31 waivers to oil refineries. The waivers exempt those refineries from meeting regulations requiring ethanol production. The exemptions are supposed to go to smaller refineries, but Ernst accuses the EPA of granting waivers operated by companies like Exxon and Chevron. “There is a big concern out there that our Renewable Fuel Standard, our way of life here in the Midwest, is under attack. Now we’d like to provide these products to consumers, but if we have all of these small refineries that are receiving exemptions, they don’t have to produce.”
Sen. Ernst also told the workers that former Iowa Governor and current Ambassador to China Terry Branstad met with President Trump Monday. According to Ernst, Ambassador Branstad tried to explain to the President the importance of ethanol production to Iowa, its farmers and the greater economy they support.
As the Senator spoke, Iowa’s three Democrat members of Congress were calling for the Inspector General to investigate the EPA and the decision to grant waivers to large refineries. I asked Sen. Ernst if she would support that call for a federal investigation. “I think we need to shed transparency on this and understand how they are arriving on what is a small refinery, because to me it looks like some of those small refineries are associated with much larger entities.” READ MORE
Excerpt from Kearney Hub: The national media frequently turned its cameras from the bumper crop of Democratic presidential candidates at the fair and instead heard from farmers about their economic problems.
Some weren’t too pleased with the president, who told Americans that trade wars are easily won. Actually, many grain and livestock producers facing extreme uncertainty feel like big losers.
If not for ill-advised trade policies, U.S. farmers would have access to foreign markets. Instead, they have a bumper crop of uncertainty as foreign buyers who once relied upon U.S. producers now feel it’s too risky to do business with the United States.
“Their continued handouts to the oil industry come during a time when heartland farmers are really struggling due to depressed commodity prices, flooding and trade wars. Securing access and demand for homegrown, cleaner-burning biofuels should be a top priority from an economic and environmental standpoint, not destroying the marketplace program the RFS was created for,” Berry (Roger Berry, the administrator for the Nebraska Ethanol Board) said.
The RFS makes sense. So does ethanol-blended fuel. Buying it saves families hundreds of dollars per year, it eliminates billions of dollars of foreign petroleum imports, it reduces the U.S. trade deficit and greenhouse gas emissions, and gives farmers a much needed alternative market for corn. READ MORE
Excerpt from Renewable Fuels Association: Today, an EPA spokesperson said there was “zero evidence” of demand destruction for ethanol due to the numerous refinery exemptions allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The following is a statement from RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper.
