A deal on the nation’s ethanol mandate that President Trump said was reached last month is still being hashed out, according to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a top defender of farmers and the ethanol industry.
The deal is “forthcoming,” Ernst told the Washington Examiner Friday. Ernst spoke to Trump Thursday night to discuss the delays and the timing of a final deal.
Ernst and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have been working closely with the White House for months on reaching a deal that would reduce the price of renewable identification number credits for oil refiners, while easing EPA regulations that prevent the sale of higher 15-percent ethanol fuel blends year-round.
Trump told her the issue is still being worked out between Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue.
“When I spoke to the president last night, he said that between Vice President [Mike] Pence, who is managing some of the situation, the deal is being arrived at between Secretary Perdue and Administrator Pruitt,” said Ernst, whose state is the top ethanol producer in the country.
Trump said last month that a deal had been reached between the two sides on the Renewable Fuel Standard by allowing the credits from ethanol exports to be used by refiners to reduce the cost of complying with the program. The EPA currently excludes those credits from being used by refiners to comply.
The EPA, also, must relax limitations on using E15 fuel blends during the summer. Beginning June 1, E15 is barred from use through October because of its high fuel volatility.
But the final deal has not been hashed out. Nevertheless, Trump told Ernst to expect something next week.
“If there is a deal, they have not shared it with us,” Ernst said. “They could have a deal and they are just not ready to share that with us. But the president said it would be done this next week.
“I would be disappointed if they rolled this out without including us,” she said. “I would have thought we would have had a deal by now.”
Trump is taking a hands-off approach, reiterating to Ernst that the deal is being worked out by the Cabinet secretaries, with limited input from the White House.
“He just said this is between Pruitt and Perdue,” Ernst said. “I would hope that the administrator, the secretary, and Vice President Pence would at least include us in the discussion.”
Trump encouraged her to continue to put pressure on Pruitt and Perdue to make sure they issue the finalized deal soon.
Overall, Ernst is frustrated that Pruitt recently has granted dozens of waivers to oil refiners, contrary to the spirit of the deal.
“Sen. Grassley and I are just very frustrated, and the way we feel and a number of other senators feel this way too, is that Administrator Pruitt is not upholding what he promised us he would do, which is follow the intent of the law,” she said. “And I feel that he is not upholding the president’s promises to our American farmers.”
On Thursday, the EPA awarded tens of millions of dollars of ethanol credits to refiners HollyFrontier and Sinclair Oil, after the companies said they had been wrongly denied waivers in 2014, sources told Reuters.
“There is just not a lot of transparency in what Administrator Pruitt is doing,” she said. “Some of these refineries seem to be doing just fine. I want to know how he’s arriving at what he’s doing.”
Ernst said if Pruitt would have allowed more E15 to be sold, it would have made more ethanol credits available and driven down the cost of complying with the renewable fuel program.
The program requires to blend billions of gallons of ethanol and other biofuels into the nation’s gasoline and diesel supply. Some smaller independent refineries can’t blend the fuels themselves, and must rely on purchasing the credits to demonstrate to the EPA that they have followed the law.
“I support the president, I want him to do well, and I just hope that whatever deal comes out is not something that will be perceived as breaking his promise to the folks that voted for him,” Ernst said.
