News
Ethanol leaders concerned about ‘mishandling’ of RFS
Ethanol industry leaders say while they’re pleased with the EPA’s recent denial of gap year waivers to oil refiners, they still have big concerns about the Trump Administration’s “mishandling” of the Renewable Fuels Standard.
American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings.
“Instead of adhering to the law, what we see is the administration trying to figure out ways to ‘ok if we do something on one hand for ethanol, what can we do to counter that to keep refiners happy on the oil side’ when all we really need them to do is follow the law,” Jennings said.
He said for refiners to comply with law, they must blend biofuels into their products or buy Renewable Energy Market Credits.
Geoff Cooper, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, says while the denial of the “gap-year” waivers was a step in the right direction, it shouldn’t have been on the table to begin with.
“It’s simply doing something that should’ve been done or [rather] undoing something that never should’ve happened in the first place,” Cooper said. “This notion that there’s got to be ‘if you’re going to do something for the ethanol industry [then] you got to do something for refiners’ is just a ridiculous notion.”
Cooper says the EPA needs to adopt the 10th Circuit Court’s ruling nationally and apply it to the 33 pending refinery exemption requests for 2019 and 2020.
Jennings and Cooper spoke on a media call Wednesday.
