Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee, said Tuesday that Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt may be breaking the law in how he is managing the agency’s ethanol program by granting oil refiners waivers in “secret.”
“As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I also have concerns that EPA may be ignoring or abusing the Administrative Procedure Act as they continue to grant waivers in secret and refuse to respond to congressional oversight and public information requests regarding the practice,” the Iowa Republican said.
“The public’s business ought to be public, and hiding behind bureaucracy and poor excuses isn’t going to work,” Grassley said.
The Administrative Procedure Act covers how regulations are to be disclosed for public examination and subject to comment before being enacted as a federal rule.
[Pruitt gets hit from all sides over ethanol mandate]
Grassley made the statement in responding to the EPA’s release of the 2019 targets for the Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires that refiners blend increasing amounts of ethanol and other biofuels into the nation’s gasoline and diesel supply.
Grassley and other Farm Belt lawmakers have been outraged over Pruitt’s decision to approve dozens of waivers for refiners to exempt them from having to blend ethanol.
The waivers would free independent refiners from having to buy expensive ethanol credits to meet the EPA fuel program. But the ethanol industry and lawmakers such as Grassley argue that granting waivers violates the law.
Grassley has called on Pruitt to disclose details of the process he has used in determining which refiners receive waivers, but has not received any response. He has even threatened to call for Pruitt’s resignation if he does not stop granting the waivers.
On Tuesday, Grassley said if Pruitt does not change the final 2019 Renewable Fuel Standard to make up for the ethanol lost from the refinery waivers, he should step down.
“So far, Administrator Pruitt has failed,” he said. “But he can make it right by reallocating waived obligations in the final rule. Otherwise, Administrator Pruitt should let someone else do the job who won’t continue to undermine the president.”
Grassley has said that he would wait until after the inspector general’s investigations are completed before deciding whether to call for Pruitt’s resignation. The EPA inspector general has several ongoing investigations into Pruitt’s potential ethics violations. The investigations are expected to be concluded by August.
