Trumping Obama on Biofuels

by Ann Bailey (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Ethanol industry advocates believe the Trump administration will be friendlier to ethanol than the previous one. -- Last fall, a few weeks before the 2016 presidential election, Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Bob Dinneen concluded an Export Exchange session on how a new administration might affect global trade by saying that citizens really wouldn’t know any specifics until the crop was in the bin. A few months later, the majority of the crop is in the bin, but there are still a few fields left to be harvested. Voters elected Donald Trump president and Mike Pence vice president on Nov. 8, and in the ensuing weeks, Trump appointed former Texas governor Rick Perry as U.S. Energy Secretary and Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt as U.S. EPA administrator. By press time in early January, several Cabinet positions, including U.S. Agriculture Secretary, still were unfilled and many assistant secretary and administrator positions remained open.

“The whole government hasn’t come together, so we’re beginning to get it in the bin, but it’s not completely there,” Dinneen says. Though it wasn’t clear who Trump would pick to complete his administration, Dinneen is confident the new president will be friendly to ethanol.

Past Support
“He was very supportive in the campaign of ethanol, generally, and the RFS (renewable fuel standard), specifically,” Dinneen says. “He visited several plants. He kicked the tires. I think he understands what ethanol means to rural communities. I think he understands what ethanol means to consumers. I think he understands what it means in terms of adding American energy, and he’s all about American energy, so I’m optimistic.”

Besides being supportive of the RFS, Dinneen believes Trump’s plan to repeal regulations also will benefit the ethanol industry.

“We have a slew of regulations that provide no environmental benefit, that provide no consumer benefit, that just get in the way of economic growth and, even though Carl Icahn has been designated as the regulatory czar, I think that our message—that these are regulations that don’t make sense for the refiners or consumers—will resonate,” Dinneen says. “For example, our effort to secure the 1-pound waiver, to eliminate the disparity between E10 and E15 and other higher-octane blends on volatility, on regulations, may gain some traction in this administration where it did not in the previous administration.” And while it is true that Trump has not been a fan of free trade agreements, he has been “an indefatigable defender of American industry,” he says.

Advocating for Ethanol
“It doesn’t take a lot of memory to remember that, as a senator, Barack Obama was an enthusiastic supporter of ethanol and the anticipation was, once he became president, we would see his administration provide enthusiastic support for ethanol,” Jennings (American Coalition for Ethanol executive vice president) says. “However, his two EPA administrators, Lisa Davis, the first, and Gina McCarthy, the current and longer-serving, have not been enthusiastic supporters of ethanol. In fact, it can be argued, despite the fact that Barack Obama supported ethanol on the campaign trail, it was his EPA that took RFS off track for a two- to three-year period by reducing the volumes below what Congress had called for in the statute, by buying into the oil company blend-wall myth and by artificially holding back how much ethanol American consumers could use,” Jennings says.

That’s why he believes the ethanol industry should make sure the administration carries out his vision and publicly supports ethanol. The American Coalition for Ethanol issued a call to action in December asking its members to contact their U.S. senators. “Every cabinet position requires a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate,” Jennings says. “Scott Pruitt needs 51 votes in the U.S. Senate before he can lead the EPA. We’ve called on our senators, because they will be meeting with Scott Pruitt for coffee or lunch or on a one-on-one basis, to get to know him before they vote for or against his confirmation. We’ve encouraged senators to do their jobs and that is, to vet Scott Pruitt carefully, to ask him about his past opposition to the RFS, his past opposition to E15, to ask him whether he will stand with President Trump to now be for the renewable fuel standard, to now be for E15.” READ MORE / MORE / MORE and MORE (Energy.AgWired.com; includes AUDIO interview with Bob Dinneen) and MORE (The Washington Times) and MORE (NewsPressNow.com) and MORE (Plainsman) and MORE (KMALand.com) and MORE (Farms.com)