IRFA says waivers have rendered RFS meaningless

by | Jul 18, 2018 | 5 Ag Stories, News

Today during testimony before the EPA, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Managing Director Lucy Norton urged that the final Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rule for 2019 must reflect the law and President Donald Trump?s commitment to the RFS. Noting the proposed increases for biodiesel, cellulosic ethanol, and overall advanced biofuels are refreshing, Norton highlighted that they, as well as corn ethanol, are undermined by small-refinery exemptions.

?Today, our message is simple: 15 billion gallons must mean 15 billion gallons,? Norton said. ?That is what the law says. Yet the moment the ink dries on this rule in the Federal Register, retroactive and questionable small-refinery exemptions, if not addressed, will slash the RFS categories to meaningless levels. The exemptions are a cancer that eats into each and every RFS category. Quite frankly, the rampant use of small refinery exemptions is a cancer that is eating into the credibility of the EPA.?

Norton emphasized that despite President Trump?s commitment and direction from the Administration to increase RFS volumes and reallocate gallons lost to questionable small-refinery exemptions, EPA went rogue for the second year in a row with a demand-destroying proposal at the 11th hour before the proposed rule went public.

?The EPA going rogue makes a mockery of the interagency process and highlights how the EPA under its former leadership was out of step with the Trump Administration and President Trump himself,? she said. ?Restore the integrity of the RFS and, by doing so, the trust of rural America in this agency and in this Administration.?