Last week, we talked about the efforts being launched at getting President Trump to continue his support for the biofuels industry in the wake of a 10th Circuit Court ruling that the EPA illegally handed out three Small Refinery Exemptions (SRE?s). Reports surfaced that the Trump Administration would be supporting the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on an appeal of a ruling.
The Administration asked for and received an extension from the court in which to decide if they were going to appeal. Many biofuels supporters see this as a reversal of the support they were given from the administration. Now, one author of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) weighs in on what this decision could mean.
Jim Talent is a former Missouri Republican Senator and one of the authors of the RFS. He is now a Co-Chair of Americans for Energy Security and Innovation. Talent says the Trump Administration is making, ?another unforced error.? He says the authors of the RFS never could have anticipated exemptions would be used in such a way that would destroy ten percent of demand.
At the center of this debate is Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). He has long been an unapologetic supporter of the oil industry in Texas. Many times, he has attacked the RFS and even held up USDA appointments because of it. Talent says the President needs to stop listening to Cruz on matters which affect the President?s support in the Midwestern states.
Talent talks about the intentions of the exemptions that were allowed for in the RFS. He says the law was never written to exempt refineries at the level the Trump Administration has been exempting them.
President Trump really relied on the support he received in rural America during the 2016 elections. It is the support he says is reciprocal when he talks about the farmers and the agriculture and biofuels industry. However, so many broken agreements and promises have soured the biofuels industry over the past few months. Not since the May 2019 rollout of year year-round E15 sales has the biofuels industry seen a win.
We all know about the shuttering or slowing of production in plants across Iowa and across the country. The plants looked to an Oval Office agreement as the stability they would need to bring operations back online and to full capacity. However, when the EPA changed course and altered their end of the bargain only a few days later, it made supporters scratch their heads and ask, ?Where is President Trump? The President ordered the EPA to make E15 available year-round, but he cannot hold their feet to the fire and tell them to live up to their agreement in October?? Supporters are trying to find out where the President?s authority over the EPA, or at the very least, his willingness to exercise his authority over the EPA ends.
The President?s decision on whether to fully support this appeal could erode his support from the biofuels industry and midwestern farmers. Farmers who have been both sides of the argument on the trade wars, farmers who needed to get government backing to keep operating because of trade disputes but would rather have just had trade. Many farmers kept their support for the Administration during the trade wars because they felt they also had an ear in the White House that was listening to them and not trying to micromanage how they ran their businesses and livelihoods.
However, this is not trade. This is a completely different subject, with different outcomes for farmers. Producers rely on the success of the biofuels industry. An industry that helps drive demand for their corn and soybean production. Jim Talent says it is not unreasonable to think that a Trump Administration which openly backs the EPA in the illegal use of SRE?s, could face additional scrutiny from rural America during the elections of 2020.
Talent says the EPA under the Trump Administration needs to stop granting wholesale refinery exemptions. Talent says this was never the intent of the Renewable Fuels Standard, and that even the American Petroleum Institute has agreed with the biofuels industry that the misuse of SRE?s is distorting the marketplace. Talent is asking the EPA to just get back to using the RFS as it was intended.
Just because the Trump Administration asked for this extension for the EPA to file an appeal, doesn?t mean it will. Ag groups say that now is the time for producers and biofuels supporters to turn up the heat again. They need to let the White House know this abuse of waivers cannot stand.
