Renewable fuel and farm advocates call on Trump to uphold biofuel promise
A coalition of biofuel and farm advocates has called on US President Donald Trump to fix a flawed proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that “fails in its mission to reinvigorate farm economies and reopen biofuel plants across America’s heartland.”
The letter, which was signed by 60 organisation – including the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, National Biodiesel Board, National Corn Growers Association and America Coalition for Ethanol – was sent to the White House on 4 November.
It notes that the EPA’s draft plan undermines the Trump administration’s commitment to restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard, as well as accurately account for biofuel demand destroyed by small refinery exemptions (SREs).
“The flawed proposal swaps out a critical component of the SRE remedy sought by farmers and the biofuels industry,” wrote farm and biofuel leaders. “Instead of recovering the gallons exempted by EPA, it proposes to recover only those gallons previously recommended for exemption by the US Department of Energy.
“This one EPA modification converts a commitment to fully account for SREs into a bureaucratically uncertain path that recovers only one fraction of those gallons lost to SREs and could result in RFS backsliding in 2020. This lack of certainty sabotages efforts toward market recovery and will stop biorefineries from reopening.”
A copy of the letter, with a list of signatories, can be found here.
The letter, which was signed by 60 organisation – including the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, National Biodiesel Board, National Corn Growers Association and America Coalition for Ethanol – was sent to the White House on 4 November.
It notes that the EPA’s draft plan undermines the Trump administration’s commitment to restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard, as well as accurately account for biofuel demand destroyed by small refinery exemptions (SREs).
“The flawed proposal swaps out a critical component of the SRE remedy sought by farmers and the biofuels industry,” wrote farm and biofuel leaders. “Instead of recovering the gallons exempted by EPA, it proposes to recover only those gallons previously recommended for exemption by the US Department of Energy.
“This one EPA modification converts a commitment to fully account for SREs into a bureaucratically uncertain path that recovers only one fraction of those gallons lost to SREs and could result in RFS backsliding in 2020. This lack of certainty sabotages efforts toward market recovery and will stop biorefineries from reopening.”
A copy of the letter, with a list of signatories, can be found here.
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