Roughly ten days ago, Midwestern senators left a meeting with President Trump believing they had an agreement to solidify corn ethanol’s share of the gasoline market. Yet Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said on Tuesday he had no idea why the administration has not announced the plan, arguing “it ought to have been out yesterday.”
Farm groups and ethanol makers have complained for months that EPA was shortchanging them by exempting some small-volume refineries from complying with the Renewable Fuel Standard. The waivers effectively reduce the ethanol mandate from its announced level of 15 billion gallons a year, they argue. Midwesterners say Trump agreed the EPA should make up for the waivers by assigning the lost gallons to other refineries.
However, a spokesman for oil refiners said that when Trump later met senators from oil-producing and -refining states, there was “an agreement on some sort of RIN cap/limitations.” RINs are credits that refiners are obliged to buy if they cannot blend enough ethanol to satisfy the RFS. “Not clear where it goes from here, but it doesn’t sound like they are in a hurry,” said the lobbyist.
Midwesterners say a limit on RIN prices would undermine the RFS, just as waivers do. The oil industry wants protection against ruinously high RIN prices.
“This (ethanol issue) is hurting the president more in Iowa than even the China debate,” Grassley said during a teleconference. Fellow Iowan Sen. Joni Ernst, said on social media, “Let’s calm the anxieties in farm country by making it right and restoring the integrity of the #RFS. 15 billion means 15 billion.”
Nebraska Sen. Deb Fischer made the same point on social media. “I appreciate the attention @realDonaldTrump is giving to the #RFS on behalf of farm country,” she tweeted. “Recently, my corn-state colleagues and I agreed on a course of action with the president in the Oval Office, and I hope the agreement moves forward.”