U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) last week led 23 of her colleagues in seeking federal protections for America’s biofuels.
Specifically, the senators urged the Trump Administration to uphold the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and to reject the requests from five state governors to waive the RFS under the Clean Air Act.
“Our nation is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the global health pandemic caused by COVID-19, with the impacts being felt across all of society,” wrote Sen. Ernst and her colleagues in a May 7 letter sent to President Donald Trump. “Waiving the RFS would cause further harm to the U.S. economy, especially our most vulnerable rural communities.”
Additionally, the senators wrote, an RFS waiver would exacerbate the effects experienced by the biofuel sector as a result of COVID-19, “causing far-reaching detrimental impacts on employment, farmers, food security, fuel prices, and the environment.”
And they noted that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) expansion of the small refinery waiver program in recent years already has negatively impacted the resiliency of America’s renewable fuel industry.
Sen. Ernst and the other senators listed several examples for why the waiver requests should be rejected, including that challenging market conditions in the oil sector, which are the direct result of oversupply from international competitors, combined with falling gasoline, diesel and jet fuel demand are a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, not the RFS.
Additionally, the RFS already accommodates demand reductions and provides flexibility that reflects the reality of motor fuel demand, according to their letter, which pointed out that the EPA translates the annual RFS requirements into a percentage share of gasoline and diesel.
“Thus, the existing structure of the RFS regulations already results in an oil refiner’s renewable volume obligations being proportionally reduced if overall motor fuel demand drops over the year,” wrote Sen. Ernst and her colleagues.
“We urge you to direct the EPA to reject all calls to waive the RFS,” wrote Sen. Ernst and her colleagues, who included U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt (R-MO), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Tina Smith (D-MN). “The RFS is more important now than ever as farmers, the biofuel sector, and rural America struggle to remain operating amid the COVID-19 crisis.”
The letter received support from the Iowa Biodiesel Board, the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Corn Growers Association, and the National Biodiesel Board, among others.