Bipartisan solution requires EPA to reallocate exempted gallons so biofuel targets are met.

Jacqui Fatka, Policy editor

June 14, 2019

3 Min Read
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RURAL MENTAL HEALTH FUNDING: Legislation honors Sgt. Ketchum, who lost his own battle with PTSD after not getting the care he needed when he returned home. sborisov/iStock/Thinkstock

After reports indicated that the Environmental Protection Agency changed rules to help profitable refineries receive biofuel waivers, bipartisan legislation in the Senate looks to correct EPA’s mismanagement of the small refinery exemption provision of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Sens. Deb Fischer (R., Neb.) and Tammy Duckworth (D., Ill.) introduced the bipartisan RFS Integrity Act of 2019. This legislation seeks to provide more certainty for rural America by bringing more transparency and predictability to EPA’s small refinery exemption process. The bill would require small refineries to petition for RFS hardship exemptions by June 1 of each year. This change would ensure that EPA properly accounts for exempted gallons in the annual renewable volume obligations it sets each November.

Under President Donald Trump, EPA has retroactively granted more than 50 so-called hardship waivers for small refineries, effectively erasing 2.61 billion gal. worth of the RFS blending obligations for the 2016 and 2017 compliance years, and it has 39 more requests pending for 2018.

“In the past, EPA has issued small refinery exemptions after the renewable volume obligations have already been determined. That’s unfair, and it hurts our farmers and ethanol producers. This bill would shine a light on what’s been an obscure exemption process and help promote economic growth in rural America,” Fischer said.

Related:House looks to restore RFS transparency, integrity

“Farmers across Illinois and throughout the Midwest are hurting, and ethanol plants are idling while this Administration is abusing the small refinery exemption program to undermine the bipartisan Renewable Fuel Standard. I am proud to work with Sen. Fischer to introduce this bipartisan legislation to bring much-needed transparency to the waiver process and prevent it from being misused to benefit billion-dollar oil companies at the expense of hardworking Americans,” Duckworth added.

The bill also increases transparency by ensuring that key information surrounding small refinery exemptions is made publicly available. Additionally, this legislation requires EPA to report to Congress on the methodology it uses when granting small refinery exemptions -- a process that has been repeatedly carried out behind closed doors with little to no congressional oversight.

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) chief executive officer Brian Jennings said, “The uptick of waivers without reallocation as required by law also means the congressional intent of the RFS is undermined. This legislation would help ensure EPA’s abuse of small refinery exemptions is put to a stop by requiring timely reallocation of any granted waiver and ensuring the statutory RFS volumes are enforced. ACE is grateful for the leadership of Sens. Fischer and Duckworth to help get the RFS back on track by following the rule of law.”

Related:EPA's RFS waivers cut corn demand by 900m bu.

“EPA’s track record on handouts to big oil through small refinery exemptions has eliminated markets at a time when growers and producers face true economic hardship,” Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor noted. “U.S. ethanol consumption recently fell for the first time in 20 years. Across the heartland, many biofuel plants have shut their doors or idled production. Farm income plummeted $11.8 billion over just the last three months -- the steepest drop since 2016. It’s clear that the ‘economic hardship’ is happening in America’s farm belt – not in oil company boardrooms."

About the Author(s)

Jacqui Fatka

Policy editor, Farm Futures

Jacqui Fatka grew up on a diversified livestock and grain farm in southwest Iowa and graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and mass communications, with a minor in agriculture education, in 2003. She’s been writing for agricultural audiences ever since. In college, she interned with Wallaces Farmer and cultivated her love of ag policy during an internship with the Iowa Pork Producers Association, working in Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Capitol Hill press office. In 2003, she started full time for Farm Progress companies’ state and regional publications as the e-content editor, and became Farm Futures’ policy editor in 2004. A few years later, she began covering grain and biofuels markets for the weekly newspaper Feedstuffs. As the current policy editor for Farm Progress, she covers the ongoing developments in ag policy, trade, regulations and court rulings. Fatka also serves as the interim executive secretary-treasurer for the North American Agricultural Journalists. She lives on a small acreage in central Ohio with her husband and three children.

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