YPSILANTI, MI – Today, Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor testified before U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials at a hearing on the agency’s proposed supplemental rule on 2020 biofuel targets under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Skor, whose organization represents more than half of U.S. ethanol production, called on EPA to fix this flawed draft proposal and reverse the demand destruction that has shuttered biofuel plants across the heartland.
“As drafted, EPA’s plan fails to accurately account for lost gallons and betrays President Trump’s promise to rural America,” testified Skor. “It cuts the fix we were promised in half, if not more, and destroys what may be our last chance to bring back the ethanol plants that have shut down and help ease the burden facing American farmers.”
To begin repairing the damage, Skor called on the EPA to uphold the president’s commitment to farmers and biofuel workers.
“Midwestern lawmakers and governors have seen the damage firsthand and worked with the president to secure a deal that would start to undo the damage – a deal that would honor this administration’s commitments to farmers, biofuel producers, rural America, as well as small refineries. But instead, the EPA has undercut the president’s promise and has yet again tilted the table in favor of the nation’s largest oil companies – all at the expense of the American farmer.”
Among other changes, she urged regulators to use the rolling average of actual exempted volumes from the three most recently completed compliance years in the final rule, as promised by the administration. She also called on the agency to formally bind itself to the revised methodology for future years and expedite work to remove additional barriers to the sale of E15.
“EPA must fix this rule immediately by properly accounting for exempted gallons and restoring lost demand. American biofuel producers and farmers cannot afford anything less,” concluded Skor.
Growth Energy member and Siouxland Energy Cooperative President Kelly Nieuwenhuis shared a similar message with lawmakers yesterday, during a House hearing entitled, “Protecting the RFS: The Trump Administration’s Abuse of Secret Waivers.” Nieuwenhuis, who also is farmer near Primghar, Iowa, discussed the devastating impact of the EPA’s actions, which forced dozens of plants like Siouxland Energy to idle production or close their doors over the last year.