President Trump may be keeping his campaign promise on protecting the nation’s renewable fuels mandate. Administration sources have told various media that the White House ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to hold off on controversial changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard. The move comes after a political backlash from Midwestern lawmakers.
Calls to the White House were not immediately returned, but EPA responded in an email that Administrator Scott Pruitt “doesn’t want to take any steps to undermine the objectives of the statute of the RFS.”
Ethanol groups did not grant interview requests but National Corn Growers Executive Vice-President, Jon Doggett had this when EPA issued its latest proposal.
The D.C. Federal Appeals Court earlier ruled for NCGA, the Renewable Fuels Association, and others, and against the Obama EPA in how it used waivers to roll back conventional ethanol volumes in the statute for 2014 through ’16. But the Trump EPA proposed this summer, cuts in cellulosic, biodiesel, and total biofuel volumes next year, a move that sparked loud complaints from U.S. senators, House members, and governors from biofuel-producing states.
President Trump spoke with Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds on Wednesday, but White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters that no assurances were made about the RFS.
Also, a key for farmers this week is tax reform and a key budget bill that Republicans need to pass with little or no votes from Democrats. Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell
Democrats complained the White House and GOP plan would largely benefit the wealthy with breaks for corporations and elimination of the estate tax, something agriculture has largely backed.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.