A bipartisan group of farm state senators on Tuesday accused Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt of breaking the law and violating President Trump’s commitment to the nation’s ethanol mandate.
The EPA has been granting waivers to oil refiners recently to avoid meeting the nation’s Renewable Fuel Standard.
“We are writing to you regarding the actions the Environmental Protection Agency has taken to undermine commitments President Trump made on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to our constituents,” according to a letter led by Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
“Recent reports indicate dozens of small refiner waivers have been secretly granted to large, multibillion-dollar companies under the guise of the small refinery hardship exemption provision in section 211(o)(9) of the Clean Air Act. This is extremely concerning to us,” the letter stated.
Grassley and Klobuchar were joined by Republican Sens. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, Deb Fischer, R-Neb., John Thune, R-S.D., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
The Democrats on the letter included Sens. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Tina Smith, D-Minn., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D.,and Joe Donnelly, D-Ind.
The ethanol industry and lawmakers began raising concerns about the EPA’s moves last week after Reuters disclosed that refinery giant Andeavor, the fifth largest refiner in the nation, was given a hardship waiver by the EPA for three of its smallest refineries. Since then, the EPA’s actions have snowballed, the senators say.
“According to recent reports, the EPA has already issued 25 ‘disproportionate hardship’ waivers to large, multi-billion-dollar refining companies reporting billions of dollars of profits since 2016,” the senators wrote. “Such action would represent a clear violation of your commitments and clearly undermine the president’s long-standing support of the RFS.”
Multiple ethanol industry and biofuel trade groups accused the EPA of misinterpreting the Clean Air Act’s small refinery waiver process to benefit the companies. The senators’ letter reiterated the legal concerns, saying the EPA’s actions “fall well outside the bounds of the letter or spirit of this provision in the law.”
“Worse, EPA’s actions are already hurting biofuel producers and farmers across the United States at a time when farm income is at the lowest levels since 2006 and retaliatory trade measures from China threaten to deepen the crisis,” the senators wrote.
The letter provided a list of actions they want Pruitt to do by the end of the month, including putting in writing his commitment to preserving the RFS’ ethanol mandate. They want a full accounting of each hardship waiver granted and plans for future actions.
They also gave him a two-week deadline to provide a detailed report to Congress “that describes your justification for providing each of these waivers,” the letter read. “Specifically, please include whether the volumes were redistributed to other obligated parties. If the volumes were not redistributed, please explain why they were not and the reason EPA decided to undercut the RVOs against the president’s commitment.”
The waivers take certain refiners off the hook for blending ethanol but require others to take on those obligations, called renewable volume obligations, or RVOs. Not redistributing the obligations would essentially mean the RFS annual target has been cut without the required public comment process and rulemaking.
