Farm-state Republican blasts Trump administration: 'They screwed us' [View all]

[riversedge]

Source: dailykos


Monday August 19, 2019 · 12:42 PM CDT

Chuck Grassley's not happy with his president.



Sen. Chuck Grassley, Iowa's Republican senior senator, blasted the Trump administration Friday for EPA biofuel rules that have hurt Iowa farmers. "They screwed us ... when they issued 31 waivers,” Grassley told Iowa Public Television Friday. The waivers he's talking about are waivers to 31 small petroleum refineries who have been exempted from a rule requiring them to use corn-based ethanol in their products. Grassley pointed out that fewer than 10 waivers were granted during "all the Obama years—and we thought that was bad." Grassley continued, "What's really bad isn't a waiver, it's that it's being granted to people that really aren't [in financial] hardship," while farmers are really hurting, facing a record number of bankruptcies. The "buck stops at the Oval Office," he said, putting this one on Trump rather than EPA bureaucrats.

He was referring to a Reuters report that Trump told EPA head Andrew Wheeler (the former coal lobbyist) personally to grant the waivers. "The president has heard from all sides and in the end, he has had enough of it. He called Wheeler and gave him the green light," a source told Reuters. Trump's EPA has more than quadrupled those waivers, according to Reuters. Some of the refineries that have been granted those waivers are run by oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron, corporations that have also done very well by Trump's tax law. Which Grassley was happy to vote for.
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Grassley is in a safe place to criticize Trump. But his junior senator, Joni Ernst, is not. She's running for reelection this year, and is already on the wrong side of many voters for refusing to act on gun violence.

Read more: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/8/19/1879980/-Farm-state-Republican-blasts-Trump-administration-They-screwed-us?utm_campaign=trending

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August 16, 2019 / 6:06 AM / 3 days ago
Trump intervention triggered EPA's surprise biofuel waiver decision: sources


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biofuels-trump/trump-intervention-triggered-epas-surprise-biofuel-waiver-decision-sources-idUSKCN1V610F
Humeyra Pamuk

4 Min Read

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A phone call from U.S. President Donald Trump last week ended a nearly two-month-long review of the nation’s biofuels program, three sources familiar with the matter said, with the White House siding in favor of oil refiners over corn growers. ...................................................



Trump’s call triggered a flurry of action within the EPA, leading up to a surprise Friday afternoon announcement, after weeks of negotiations between U.S. government agencies failed to make progress in addressing farmers’ concerns. .................................................................

The White House has sought to make changes to the nation’s biofuels laws since the beginning of Trump’s administration in early 2017, but found themselves caught between the powerful oil and corn lobbies, both of whom have allies in Washington in Trump’s Republican Party.