News
Ethanol, farm groups swiftly condemn more EPA waivers
The EPA’s announcement this afternoon that it’s granting 31 more exemptions to oil refineries from the Renewable Fuels Standard has been met with harsh criticism from the ethanol industry and farm groups. Geoff Cooper with the Renewable Fuels Association tells Brownfield Ag News, “It’s just baffling to us that the administration would take this action and grant even MORE exemptions to small refiners when we’ve already seen the impact of the last round of exemptions. We’ve seen the ethanol market completely battered.”
Cooper says President Trump gave every sign during and after
his trip to an Iowa ethanol plant in June that things would change for the
better but the EPA has instead chosen “Big Oil,” “I was standing a couple away
from the president when he told one of the farmers in Council Bluffs, ‘Hey, I’m
going to look into this. I hear you.’ Well, here we are a couple months later
and it looks like we’ve got more of the same from this EPA and from this
administration.”
Cooper says the only recourse is the lawsuits filed by
ethanol groups against the EPA in the DC circuit court and 10th
circuit of Colorado. He says 13 ethanol plants have recently shut down affecting
not only farmers but ethanol industry workers – a blow to rural communities
“from Iowa to Minnesota to Mississippi and Virginia.”
Emily Skor with Growth Energy says the EPA has proven
with this decision that “it doesn’t care about following the law, American
jobs, or even the president’s promises.”
The reaction from the American Coalition for Ethanol says
“EPA’s refiner win-at-all-costs oversight of the RFS is doing real damage to
America’s farmers and renewable fuel producers who are already suffering form
trade wars and volatile markets.”
National Corn Growers Association President Lynn Chrisp
says ““Farmers
are facing a sixth consecutive year of depressed income and commodity prices,
with farm income for 2019 projected to be half of what it was in 2013. It’s
time for this Administration to act in the best interest of farmers.”
Emily Skor with Growth Energy says the EPA has proven with
this decision that “it doesn’t care about following the law, American jobs, or
even the president’s promises.”
The reaction from the American Coalition for Ethanol says
“EPA’s refiner win-at-all-costs oversight of the RFS is doing real damage to
America’s farmers and renewable fuel producers who are already suffering form
trade wars and volatile markets.”
National Corn Growers Association President Lynn Chrisp
says ““Farmers
are facing a sixth consecutive year of depressed income and commodity prices,
with farm income for 2019 projected to be half of what it was in 2013. It’s
time for this Administration to act in the best interest of farmers.”
