In the News: “US lawmakers petition EPA to end small refinery exemptions”

The following article was posted on Biofuels International’s website:

“A group of 35 members of the US House of Representatives has written to US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler to request the agency stop granting small refinery exemptions (SREs) for large or unqualified refiners under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

Industry association Growth Energy and the Biotechnology Innovation Organisation (BIO) both expressed their support for the bipartisan letter.

“At a time when grain markets have reached a 42-year low and there was an $11.8 billion decline in farm income the last quarter, our rural communities are continuing to be punished by the rapid escalation in small refinery exemptions by this administration,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor.

“There is no legal or rational explanation for why EPA has quadrupled the number of secret exemptions to the world’s largest oil companies in the past 17 months. We applaud US Reps. Cindy Axne (D-IA) and Adrian Smith (R-NE) and their 33 colleagues calling on EPA to halt unjust granting of SREs and to reallocate the gallons lost to ensure the targets set out under the RFS are met, and put an end to the practice of eliminating markets at a time when growers and producers need them most.”

Continue reading the Biofuels International article here.