President Trump, a staunch supporter of corn ethanol, told nine senators from oil-producing states to take their complaints about federal biofuel mandates to their farm-state colleagues and find a mutually acceptable solution. After the White House meeting, a USDA spokesman said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz should allow a Senate vote on Bill Northey, nominated to run the USDA’s crop subsidy and land stewardship programs.
Cruz blocked action on Northey as a way to get the White House meeting and set the stage for “longer-term policy certainty” on biofuels. Blue-collar jobs at oil refineries are in danger because of the costs of complying with the requirements to blend ethanol and biodiesel into the fuel supply, he said. Before the EPA announced the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2018 a week ago, it discarded a handful of ideas that would have helped refiners and weakened the impact of the mandate.
“Senator Cruz requested a meeting with the President, and today he and other members of the Senate had that meeting along with Secretary Perdue and Administrator Pruitt,” said a USDA spokesman when asked about the meeting and what would follow it. “We look forward to working with Senator Cruz to confirm Mr. Northey as soon as possible so that he can begin serving Texas and all farmers across this nation devastated by recent storms and wildfires.”
Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford said that “there wasn’t a resolution” at the meeting, reported Bloomberg. “It was we need to get to resolution.” Cruz had no comment on whether he would continue to block a vote on Northey, who, if confirmed, would hold the third-most powerful post at the USDA. “We are working towards a win-win solution that will benefit both blue-collar refinery workers [and] corn farmers,” he said, according to Bloomberg.
Trump’s attitude was “get it done. Get both sides together and find a win-win,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, reported Reuters. The wire service cited Lankford as saying that Trump was willing to help refiners. “It was just a recognition that this is a more complicated problem, and we’re going to have to get everybody together from all sides.”
The oil industry has tried to kill the RFS or to reduce its demands. Midwestern lawmakers say the industry is trying to destroy a rival fuel despite its value in reducing reliance on oil imports and boosting the octane content of gasoline. Ahead of the EPA announcement last week, the industry suggested that ethanol exports should count toward RFS compliance and that someone else — not refiners — should be responsible for meeting the RFS targets. Some refiners say they have spent millions of dollars buying credits, called RINs, to satisfy the biofuel mandate.
Scott Pruitt, the EPA administrator, split his day between the White House meeting on biofuels and a House hearing on environmental issues. Rep. Gene Green of Texas asked Pruitt to commit to limiting the ethanol-gasoline blend to 9.7 percent, the same level requested by the oil industry, said DTN/Progressive Farmer. “I can’t commit to anything, congressman,” Pruitt said. “We can’t pre-judge the outcome at this point.”
Earlier this week, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley said that, given Trump’s assurances, he wasn’t worried about the White House biofuels meeting. “Not if the president keeps doing what he told the voters of Iowa — that he supports ethanol,” said Grassley during a teleconference. “Mr. Northey would not want to be confirmed if the president was going to change his views on ethanol.”