In a tweet Thursday, President Donald Trump said he has accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt had been criticized for many of his actions at EPA, but the biofuel industry especially in recent months has criticized his handling of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) mandate and offering hardship waivers to refiners.

“Within the agency, Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this,” Trump said.

Since early on, Pruitt was criticized by government watchdog and environmental groups for his mounting ethics issues, including foreign trips arranged by lobbyists, a rental deal from the wife from an energy lobbyist, extra security detail and expensive office renovations. Yet, in recent months, criticism from biofuel supporters and their friends on Capitol Hill grew louder as Pruitt was unable to help bridge the divide in several White House meetings between refiners and biofuel groups.

In a statement, Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Assn., said for the past year, Pruitt has been “waging war” against the RFS, the biofuel industry and the millions of farmers and rural Americans who helped elect Trump.

“It appears these missteps finally caught up with Mr. Pruitt, who apparently thought that RFS stood for ‘Refinery First Strategy.’ Mr. Pruitt’s failure to follow President Trump’s directive to remove the red tape that restricts E15 [fuel blends] from being sold in the summertime likely played a part in his demise, and the straw that broke the camel’s back may have been Mr. Pruitt’s recent proposal for 2019 RFS requirements that failed miserably to repair damages done to our nation’s farmers and biofuel producers,” Dinneen said.

Related:EPA administrator gets an earful from corn farmers

Dinneen said there will be a “collective sigh of relief coming from the Midwest” with the announcement of Pruitt’s resignation.

In recent weeks, Pruitt visited farmers in the Midwest, including in Kansas and South Dakota. His visit was met with a rally in South Dakota, where some signs even called for his resignation.

The Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler as the deputy at EPA. On Monday, he will assume duties as the acting administrator of EPA. “I have no doubt Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda," Trump tweeted. "We have made tremendous progress, and the future of the EPA is very bright!”

“We look forward to working with acting administrator Andy Wheeler, whose long career focusing on policies that recognize economic growth and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive is not undermined by an unmistakable anti-ethanol, anti-farmer bias,” Dinneen said.

Related:Pruitt visits sorghum farm in South Dakota

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), has been one highly critical of Pruitt and involved in the White House meetings. He said of the news, “President Trump made the right decision. Administrator Pruitt’s ethical scandals and his undermining of the President’s commitment to biofuels and Midwest farmers were distracting from the agency’s otherwise strong progress to free the nation of burdensome and harmful government regulations. Fewer things are more important for government officials than maintaining public trust. Administrator Pruitt, through his own actions, lost that trust. I hope acting administrator Wheeler views this as an opportunity to restore this Administration’s standing with farmers and the biofuels industry. I’m looking forward to working with acting administrator Wheeler to do just that.”

The Sierra Club generated almost 100,000 comments calling for Pruitt’s firing and helped expose many of his scandals through Freedom of Information Act requests.