U.S. Senator Says He's Blocking USDA Nominees over Biofuel Waivers

Agriculture (USDA)Environmental Protection Agency Federal Agency/Executive Branch Federal Regulation Louisiana Opinions Policy West Virginia

July 01, 2019

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by Chris Prentice and Richard Valdmanis (Reuters) Senator John Kennedy of oil refining state Louisiana is blocking the confirmation of three senior appointees to the Department of Agriculture until the department butts out of parts of the administration’s biofuels policy, according to a letter he sent this week to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.

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Kennedy told Perdue in the letter dated June 27 that he was attempting to block the confirmation of three appointees now pending the Senate until USDA “ceases to be involved in all issues involving small refinery hardship waivers” under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard.

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The appointees pending Senate confirmation include Scott Hutchins as Undersecretary for Research, Education, and Economics; Mindy Brashears as Undersecretary for Food Safety, and Naomi Earp as Assistant Secretary.

“Please be advised that I will end my efforts to block these nominees when the USDA ceases to be involved in all issues involving small refinery hardship waivers, including the SRE application process,” he wrote. READ MORE

Oil-State Republicans Want USDA Banished From Biofuel Waivers (Bloomberg)

Oil refiners key in on Perdue (Politico's Morning Energy)

Senators fight Perdue biofuel efforts (Agri-Pulse)

SENATORS WANT PRESIDENT TO KEEP AG SECRETARY OUT OF EPA SMALL-REFINERY DECISIONS (DTN The Progressive Farmer/KTIC Radio)

Perdue to farm co-ops: Talk to Congress about USMCA (Fence Post)

Senators aim to limit USDA influence over SRE decisions (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Ethanol Blog-- Refiners: Restrict USDA Access to Small-Refinery Waivers Information (DTN The Progressive Farmer)

U.S. refiners urge EPA to keep biofuel waiver requests secret from USDA (Reuters)

Refiners demand EPA secrecy on hardship waivers (E&E News)

Senators aim to limit USDA influence over SRE decisions (Biodiesel Magazine)

Excerpt from Politico's Morning Energy: "We would view any decisions to further delay, reduce, or deny hardship relief to small refineries, or to reallocate the obligations of small refineries to other refineries, as the result of the Secretary of Agriculture's impermissible interference," according to the letter led by Senate EPW Chairman John Barrasso.

The refining industry said it would ramp up its efforts to sway the White House to keep the waivers, Eric reports. "These letters are as much about communicating to the president how strong people feel about this as they are to making the point on the subject matter," one refining industry source told Eric. "We'll see what he thinks after a lot more advocacy ends up in front of the White House."

The refinery left behind: For all the oil behemoths receiving exemptions from the RFS, specialty lube oil and diesel maker Ergon-West Virginia can't seem to get the time of day from EPA. Ergon said it applied for exemptions for the 2016, 2017 and 2018 compliance years, but EPA has not acted within required time limits, and now Ergon will take the agency to court — again. The refiner won a 4th Circuit case last year requiring EPA to reexamine an Obama-ere rejection of its exemption request.

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Marcie Smith will become a professional staff member for Republicans on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, after two years as a legislative assistant for Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.). READ MORE

Excerpt from Fence Post: (Agriculture Secretary Sonny) Perdue said President Donald Trump had called him for a consultation before leaving today for the G-20 meeting in Japan and a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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Trump also called him about the small refinery waiver for ethanol, Perdue said. READ MORE

Excerpt from DTN The Progressive Farmer: On Monday, a lawyer representing refining interests wrote a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler expressing concern about the agency's plan to share what refiners say is confidential business information with USDA officials.

President Donald Trump has ordered the EPA and USDA to review the waivers program, following his visit to an ethanol plant in Council Bluffs, Iowa, recently.

"We strongly oppose EPA sharing the small refineries’ petitions or supplemental information with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) because (1) small refineries submitted the information under claims of confidentiality with the understanding that only EPA and DOE would have access to it, and (2) the USDA has no reason to access small refineries’ CBI because it has no legal authority or role with respect to the petitions," Perkins Coie attorney LeAnn Johnson Koch writes.

Republican senators from oil-producing states have been pressing Trump to keep U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue out of EPA's decision-making on small-refinery waivers, https://www.dtnpf.com/….

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"Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue has made clear his commitment to farmers by expressing his position that farmers should have greater access to small-refinery exemption information. And, before taking his current role, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Stephen Censky served as chief executive officer of the American Soybean Association for 21 years, an organization opposed to small-refinery exemptions.

"The USDA seeks the small refineries’ CBI in order to assert influence over EPA's final decisions and thereby reduce the number of small refinery petitions granted by EPA. This interference is improper as a matter of law."

INADEQUATE DOMESTIC SUPPLY

While EPA's small-refinery waivers to the RFS have garnered the near-exclusive attention of the biofuels industry in the past year or more, perhaps equally as intriguing is the agency's decision to not make adjustments to the RFS as a result of a 2017 federal appeals court decision.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on July 28, 2017, https://www.dtnpf.com/…, ruled the EPA erred in how it interpreted an "inadequate domestic supply" waiver provision in the RFS on 2016 volumes and was required by the court to review the final volumes for 2014 to 2016.

Biofuels groups last week cried foul when the EPA's latest renewable volume obligations proposal did not include the re-institution of about 500 million gallons of conventional ethanol lost from the RFS as a result of the agency decision. In fact, the agency said its response to the court decision is to change nothing in the 2016 volumes.

Scott Irwin, Laurence J. Norton Chair of Agricultural Marketing and professor in the department of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said in a series of tweets on Tuesday the agency appears to be making another "inadequate domestic supply" argument in its latest proposal. READ MORE