Sen. Chuck Grassley is threatening to call for the resignation of Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt if he doesn’t stop exempting refiners from the nation’s ethanol mandate.
“Well, they better, or I’m going to be calling for Pruitt to resign,” the Iowa Republican said on a call with agriculture reporters Tuesday.
“I’m sick and tired of messing around with this anymore,” Grassley said. “Trump was elected with an agenda, Pruitt was not elected, and it’s Pruitt’s job to carry out the Trump agenda.”
[Click here for complete Scott Pruitt coverage]
Grassley was at a White House meeting last week where President Trump finalized a deal between refiners and corn ethanol producers to resolve a dispute about the ethanol mandate’s credits.
The deal directed Pruitt to begin relaxing restrictions on higher blends of ethanol being sold year-round, instead of being excluded during the summer. Pruitt also would have to allow ethanol credits to be used for exports, which would bring more credits into the market and therefore reduce the cost for refiners to comply with the Renewable Fuel Standard.
Part of the deal also calls for Pruitt to stop giving waivers to oil refiners, which Grassley and the renewable fuel industry says undermines Trump’s stated commitment to the renewable fuel program.
Pruitt has said little on how he would move ahead on the president’s plan and has given no timeline.
“We know the commitment the president made back in January 2016 when he spoke to the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association,” Grassley said. “He said, ‘We ought to be following the law.'”
Pruitt’s “liberal use” of refinery “hardship waivers” is cutting the ethanol targets by more than a billion gallons, which is unacceptable, Grassley said.
He added that Pruitt’s continued use of waivers would compromise the White House deal.
“It could undo the benefits” of being allowed to sell 15 percent ethanol fuels, instead of the current 10 percent blends, 12 months out of the year, he said.
