Republican Iowa senator says Trump EPA 'screwed us' with biofuel waivers [View all]

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

POLITICS AUGUST 16, 2019 / 3:11 PM / UPDATED 3 HOURS AGO

Republican Iowa senator says Trump EPA 'screwed us' with biofuel waivers

Humeyra Pamuk
3 MIN READ

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has “screwed” the U.S. ethanol industry and farmers by granting waivers to 31 small petroleum refineries, effectively exempting them from an obligation to use more ethanol in their products.

The powerful senator, who represents the largest ethanol-producing state in the country, told Iowa Public Television that low biofuel credit prices negated refiners’ complaints that they are suffering financial hardship and deserve waivers from complying with laws to encourage more biofuel use.

“They screwed us...when they issued 31 waivers,” Grassley told the broadcaster. “Compared to less than 10 waivers during all the Obama years...What’s really bad isn’t a waiver, it’s that it’s been granted to people who aren’t in hardship,” he said.

He added that he would take up the issue with President Donald Trump. Reuters earlier reported that it was Trump who gave the green light to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to go ahead with the waiver decisions, a move that infuriated corn growers while pleasing the refining industry.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ethanol-grassley/republican-iowa-senator-says-trump-epa-screwed-us-with-biofuel-waivers-idUSKCN1V61TW