The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) is urging the Trump administration to reject reports that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may greatly expand refinery exemptions from federal biofuel-blending requirements.
The state’s leading biofuels advocacy organization says rumors out of the nation’s capital and in the industry suggest the EPA may exempt 1.8 billion gallons from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), nearly double the one million gallons the agency forecast in March. The exemptions allow qualifying small refineries to avoid some renewable-fuel blending obligations, directly affecting demand in Iowa’s agricultural sector.
IRFA Executive Director Monte Shaw says, “President Trump rightly garnered much praise in March by finalizing the most robust RFS blending levels in history. To reverse course now by granting massive levels of unjustified refinery exemptions would be bad policy, bad economics, and bad for farmers.”
Since the administration’s renewed commitment to biofuels in the spring, production in Iowa has soared, and Shaw says reversing course would undo the industry’s gains of the last half-year.
