Advanced BioFuels USA

(Hagstrom Report/Fence Post) …  In a call to rural reporters, Grassley (Senator Charles Grassley R-IA) noted that he continues to warn the Trump administration that farmers are watching the management of the Renewable Fuel Standard and that he had heard Trump got a warm welcome when he spoke at the American Farm Bureau Federation on Sunday, but got no applause when he mentioned his commitment to ethanol.

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Grassley said that in his last contact with the Environmental Protection Agency he told EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler that President Donald Trump “will be challenged by farmers over the next nine months over whether he is ethanol-friendly.” Because final figures on the amount of ethanol used won’t come until after the election, Grassley said he told Wheeler that he should report publicly how many gallons have been waived under the small refinery exemption and how EPA is keeping to the commitment to use 15 billion gallons of ethanol.

Grassley said he been told that Trump got applause for the U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement, the China trade deal and other matters, but no applause when he brought up ethanol in his Farm Bureau speech in Austin, Texas.

According to a White House transcript of Trump’s speech, the president said, “And we are also proudly promoting American ethanol. Chuck Grassley calls me. Joni Ernst calls me. Deb Fischer calls me. They all call – everybody. Pat [Roberts] calls me. Ethanol. They love ethanol. And I recently approved E-15 to be used all year round, instead of eight months. And that’s a big thing for the American farmer. We’re providing unprecedented support to ethanol – support like they’ve never had before.”

The transcript notes each time the president got applause, but the transcript did not include an applause notation after the remarks about ethanol.  READ MORE

Trump promotes fossil fuels at climate-focused forum (E&E News)

‘ALLEVIATE PAIN FOR FARMERS’ (Beloit Daily News)

Farm Bureau Warily Concedes on Climate, But Members Praise Trump’s Deregulation (Inside Climate News)

After a Rough Year, Farmers and Congress Are Talking About Climate Solutions (Inside Climate News)

Doran: False hope and the RFS (AgriNews)

Trump needs to rein in the EPA (The Gazette)

Trump tries to woo struggling farmers with new water rule (The Hill)

Fuel fight roils corn country (E&E News)

Donald Trump, in Iowa, predicts a historic landslide in November, says ‘I worked so hard for this state’ (Des Moines Register)

Trump explains how admin is helping Iowa’s ethanol industry (Fox Business VIDEO)

Iowa’s anger over Trump’s ethanol policy gives Democrats opening (Financial Post)

Excerpt from Inside Climate News: Farmers also listened as the Farm Bureau’s voting delegates adopted a handful of new climate-related positions—11 in all—a move that represents a concession of sorts for an organization that haslong worked againstclimate policy. The group continues to question the causes of climate change and opposes any regulation of greenhouse gasses by the Environmental Protection Agency. 

Among the newly adopted amendments: One supporting research and education to promote soil health, a key requirement for ensuring soil’s ability to capture and store carbon, and another that calls for “unbiased science-based research on climate change.”

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One amendment called for more research to document the “beneficial impact of agricultural efforts designed to increase climate resilience.” Another opposes any “laws or policies that implicate agricultural activity of any kind as a cause for climate change without empirical evidence.”

Over the last year and a half, sweeping national and international reports have outlined global agriculture’s contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and have also warned of the disastrous consequences climate change could have on agriculture. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said last August that the entire food production system, including transportation, accounted for 37 percent of greenhouse gas emissions globally and called for improved land use and less meat-intensive diets as part of the comprehensive, urgent effort needed to prevent a global climate catastrophe. The EPA says that emissions from the U.S. agricultural sector are about 9 percent of total emissions.

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Farmers at the convention expressed growing optimism about the economic opportunities in taking steps to address climate change. One recent analysis found that soil and land conservation practices could bring more than $8 billion into farming communities, and that the average family farm could earn nearly $22,000 in additional income for taking carbon-storing steps on its farm. 

“We have the carbon sink,” said Bob Schofner, a rancher from Arkansas and one of the 346 voting delegates at the convention. “Agriculture is the only thing that can do something about this.”

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The administration hasn’t always fallen in line with the agriculture lobby’s demands: Trump’s trade war with China bruised the farm economy badly, and his administration has granted a record number of waivers to small oil refineries under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Those waivers meant that less corn-based ethanol was blended into fuels, angering corn growers and the broader farm lobby. READ MORE