ACE CEO reaction to EPA’s RFS waiver decisions
Sioux Falls, SD – The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings issued the following statement after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its small refinery exemption (SRE)dashboard today, granting 31 of the 38 waiver requests that were pending from the 2018 compliance year under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS):
“EPA’s refiner-win-at-all-costs oversight of the RFS is doing real damage to America’s farmers and renewable fuel producers who are already suffering from trade wars and volatile markets. The RFS is supposed to ensure the use of ethanol and biodiesel increases from one year to the next, but 85 Small Refinery Exemptions later and over 3 billion waived gallons represents an enormous step backwards.
“The Agency’s actions on the 2018 waiver requests reinforces our decision to join with others to challenge EPA’s handling of certain Small Refinery Exemptions in Court and petition for EPA to account for lost volumes of renewable fuel resulting from the unprecedented number of retroactive waivers granted by the Agency that we recently asked the court to move forward on due to no response from EPA.”
The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) is powered by people who have built an innovative industry that sustainably delivers clean fuel and valuable food for a growing world. These farmers, ranchers, Main Street businesses, scientists, investors, and renewable fuel producers work together to inform consumers and elected officials that in addition to helping keep gas prices low, creating jobs, improving the economy, displacing foreign oil, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, ethanol delivers a great deal of human good. Unite with ACE at www.ethanol.org and follow us on Twitter at @ACEethanol.