Advanced BioFuels USA

by Meghan Sapp (Biofuels Digest)  In New York state, Reuters reports that RIN prices skyrocketed a two-year high of 55 cents for D6 credits on the back of its exclusive story that President Trump told the EPA to deny all gap-year SRE applications. The RIN prices, not seen that high since March 2018, were nearly 18% higher than the day before. If the nearly 70 applications for waivers are denied, refiners will have no choice but to dip into the RIN market to buy enough credits to cover their obligations which they were hoping to avoid, claiming that complying with the Renewable Fuel Standard jeopardizes their economic viability.  READ MORE

Exclusive: Trump Administration to Deny Gap Year RFS Waivers (Reuters/AgWeb)

RINs spike following reports that Trump to direct EPA to deny SREs (S&P Global Platts)

President Trump Instructs EPA to Deny Retroactive (“Gap-Year”) SRE (Small-Refinery Exemption) Waiver Requests (Farm Policy News)

ETHANOL INDUSTRY AWAITS CONFIRMATION OF TRUMP SRE DIRECTIVE (Brownfield Ag News; includes AUDIO)

Report: Trump orders EPA to reject RFS waivers (Agri-Pulse)

Report: Trump to Deny RFS Gap Waivers (Hoosier Ag Today)

Trump EPA May Reject Refiner Waivers: Refiners Appeal to SCOTUS (DTN Progressive Farmer)

Reports indicate Trump will deny RFS waivers (Feedstuffs)

Trump Courts Iowa Farmers With Plan to Scrap Biofuel Waivers (Bloomberg)

Grassley: Iowa Renewable Fuels Association ethanol push hurts Trump, Ernst (The Fence Post)

Letter to the Editor: Government leadership has let farmers down (The Waukon Standard)

Trump Tells Farmers He Plan to Scrap Biofuel Waivers (Wisconsin Ag/Us AgNet)

Ethanol Coalition Welcomes Reports of ‘Gap-Year’ Waiver Petition Denials, Denounces Refiners’ Supreme Court Petition (Renewable Fuels Association)

Refiners Ask High Court To Review Biofuel Ruling (Law360)

EPA is ordered to reject “gap year” waivers by President Trump (RFD TV)

Ethanol Coalition Pleased To Hear President Will Direct EPA To Deny Gap Waivers (WNAX)

SIDING WITH FARMERS, TRUMP TELLS EPA TO DENY RETROACTIVE BIOFUEL WAIVER REQUESTS (Successful Farming)

Trump decision to cut refiner biofuel waivers followed pressure from farm states: sources (Reuters)

PETERSON WANTS GAP-YEAR AND BRAZIL ETHANOL TARIFF REPORTS SUBSTANTIATED (Brownfield Ag News)

Kim Reynolds Waiting For Info On Rumored Trump Administration Ethanol Decision (KIWA Radio)

Trump decision to cut refiner biofuel waivers followed pressure from farm states: sources (Today)

US ELECTIONS: RINs rally on Biden’s likely enforcement of biofuel mandate (S&P Global Platts)

Excerpt from Reuters/AgWeb: U.S. President Donald Trump has instructed that dozens of oil  refiner requests for retroactive waivers from U.S. biofuel laws be denied amid concerns the issue could cut into his support in the Farm Belt, three sources familiar with the decision said. 

The move, in the form of a direction to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), marks the end of an effort by the refining industry to come into compliance with a January court decision that ruled the Trump administration should not have given out some waivers in previous years.

The waivers have been a battleground for the influential oil and corn lobbies, both major constituencies for Trump as he seeks re-election in November.

The people familiar with Trump’s direction to the EPA wished to remain anonymous so they could speak candidly about the decision.

The EPA did not immediately comment.

…

The Trump administration has quadrupled the number of exemptions have given out to refiners, causing outrage in farm states, such as Iowa. 

…

In Iowa the federal administration’s expansion of the waiver program has complicated Senator Joni Ernst’s reelection bid. 

In recent weeks, Iowa officials argued that without action, Ernst – and perhaps Trump – could be in trouble come November.    READ MORE

Excerpt from DTN Progresssive Farmer: CVR Refining and HollyFrontier Corp. on Sept. 4 filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a review of the 10th Circuit ruling. The Trump administration did not file an appeal to the Supreme Court before the deadline.

“We are encouraged by reports that President Trump has called upon EPA to reject these absurd gap-year waiver petitions out of hand,” the Renewable Fuels Association, National Corn Growers Association, National Farmers Union and American Coalition for Ethanol, said in a statement on Wednesday.

…

“At the same time, we are disappointed, but not surprised, by the refiners’ 11th-hour petition to the Supreme Court to review the 10th Circuit decision. In April, these same refiners asked the 10th Circuit to re-hear the case and the court swiftly and unanimously denied that request, and the Supreme Court should do the same.”

The biofuel and ag groups said the 10th Circuit decision “does not warrant” further review.

“It is well-reasoned and based on a plain reading of the Clean Air Act, which clearly intended small-refinery exemptions to be temporary and used only as a ‘bridge to compliance’ for certain eligible small refineries. Additionally, there are no conflicting decisions in other federal courts of appeal.

“It is also telling that EPA — the defendant in the original litigation — did not request a re-hearing in the 10th Circuit, nor did it join the refiners’ Supreme Court appeal on any aspect of the decision. Now, more than ever, our nation’s farmers and ethanol producers are counting on the RFS to provide market stability and certainty during an incredibly difficult and tumultuous time.”

On Jan. 24, the 10th Circuit ruled EPA didn’t have the authority to issue small-refinery exemption extensions to three refiners that were not originally granted waivers in 2017 and 2018.

The court also found EPA “abused its discretion” by not explaining its conclusion a small refinery could suffer disproportionate economic hardship while also maintaining refiners passed on Renewable Fuel Standard compliance costs to consumers at the pump.

Congress allowed EPA to extend some small-refinery exemptions temporarily.

From 2007 through 2010, 59 small refineries received waivers. The U.S. Department of Energy then examined the 59 waivers and determined that 24 of them could be extended for another two years.

In 2011 and 2012, the number of exemptions was whittled down to eight, then down to seven in 2015.

The ethanol and agriculture groups were the four petitioners in the 10th Circuit case. A panel of judges found EPA abused its authority by granting small-refinery exemptions to CVR Refining and HollyFrontier that were not extensions of previously existing exemptions.

The gap-year waiver requests in question were made to “establish a chain of continuously ‘extended’ exemptions,” the groups said.  READ MORE

Excerpt from The Fence Post: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said Tuesday that the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association is “stirring up a hornet’s nest” with its pressure on President Donald Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency to make decisions about small refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard before the election as farm leaders called on Trump to deny the exemptions.

Asked by The Hagstrom Report during a call with agriculture reporters whether EPA should make announcements about the small refinery waivers before the election, Grassley noted that the agency doesn’t “have to.”

“I wish they would say they aren’t going to give any of them before the election. That would be the best thing to happen. But I presume that there are other people in the administration that think why stir up a hornet’s nest between refineries and ethanol in regard to making that decision before the election.”

Grassley added that he had heard Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, one on one with the president saying do it, “and I hope he does do it.”

Ernst is in a tough re-election battle against Democrat Theresa Greenfield.

But then Grassley added, “I don’t hear anti-Trump stuff on ethanol in Iowa except from the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association staff. It doesn’t come up so much from individuals that ask me about ethanol — anything anti-Trump. But it seems like that organization is stirring up a hornet’s nest by raising questions about that doesn’t do the president any good.”

Grassley also said that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., “is pushing to get Greenfield elected, spending tens of billions of dollars on negative ads against Ernst. Schumer is raising all this money for negative ads, and he is very anti-ethanol. If the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association wants to make sure we have senators that’s for ethanol, that is going to be Ernst’s re-election.”

Grassley also noted that he had 49 county meetings during August and that farmers were not critical of Trump and Ernst. “I want to make it very clear farmers stand with Trump and Ernst.”

Grassley added, “Greenfield and Schumer want a transition to electric vehicles, so you know what that will do for ethanol. If you have electric vehicles, you aren’t going to be burning any gasoline but you aren’t going to be burning any ethanol. Don’t forget 40% of the corn crop goes into ethanol.”  READ MORE