Ernst: It Was Time For Pruitt To Go
July 9, 2018
By Ryan Matheny
Members of Iowa's Congressional delegation are saying good riddance to former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt.
"I am glad that he pulled the plug," said U.S. Senator Joni Ernst. "It was time for him to go."
Ernst discussed the embattled cabinet member's resignation in a town meeting with constituents Friday morning at the Gladys Wirsig-Jones Auditorium in Shenandoah. Pruitt's resignation comes amid several ethics violations and as he faced pressure from several Midwest members of Congress, who were critical of his stance regarding renewable fuels. Ernst had grown increasingly angry with Pruitt, accusing him of lying to her and other senators last year when he pledged to uphold the Renewable Fuel Standard mandates for ethanol and biodiesel.
"Hopefully we can forge a good relationship with the EPA," said Ernst. "We want to make sure that the EPA is doing the right thing and supporting the RFS. That's vitally important to Iowa."
Before Pruitt's resignation, Iowa Third District Congressman David Young called the criticism Pruitt was receiving "well deserved."
"I think it's well deserved that he's getting this criticism," said Young. "We've heard about the ethical issues, and there's hearings on that. Then, I'm concerned, as well, about the treatment he is giving rural Iowa, and rural America, in terms of Renewable Fuel Standards, biofuels, and those kind of things, and not keeping the president's promises."
Pruitt is being succeeded by Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler -- a former coal industry lobbyist. Ernst says she is already working to schedule a meeting with the acting administrator.
"I want to make it very clear to him that he needs to uphold the congressional intent of the RFS," said Ernst. "He needs to maintain that. No if's, and's or but's about it."
Likewise, Senator Chuck Grassley announced his support for Pruitt's resignation, saying "President Trump made the right decision. Administrator Pruitt’s ethical scandals and his undermining of the President’s commitment to biofuels and Midwest farmers were distracting from the agency’s otherwise strong progress to free the nation of burdensome and harmful government regulations."
Before Pruitt's resignation, the EPA did raise production standards for ethanol and biodiesel, however, the administration failed to commit to eliminate hardship waivers that allow refiners to bypass biofuel requirements.
Read the original article: Ernst: It Was Time For Pruitt To Go
Some Questions for the New EPA Administrator
With Scott Pruitt (finally) gone, all eyes are now on how the EPA’s new interim administrator, Andrew Wheeler, will treat the RFS.
Biofuel Backers Hopeful for a Change as Pruitt Resigns
July 6, 2018
By Ed Tibbetts
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned Thursday, a move biofuels backers hope will lead to a fresh start for the Renewable Fuels Standard.
President Donald Trump announced Pruitt’s resignation over Twitter.
Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general, has been at the center of a number of ethical controversies, which appear to have played a role in his stepping aside. In his resignation letter to the president, he said “unrelenting attacks” have taken a “sizable toll” on him and his family.
In Iowa, Pruitt had drawn criticism over the EPA’s implementation of the RFS, the law that requires a certain level of biofuels to be blended into the nation’s fuel supply.
Lawmakers from farm states say Pruitt has been undermining promises Trump made about the RFS during the 2016 presidential campaign by granting waivers to the law for refineries. They say the moves have dampened demand and hurt farmers.
“President Trump made the right decision. Administrator Pruitt’s ethical scandals and his undermining of the president’s commitment to biofuels and Midwest farmers were distracting from the agency’s otherwise strong progress to free the nation of burdensome and harmful government regulations,” said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.
Grassley and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, both voted for Pruitt’s confirmation after saying they had received assurances on the RFS. And Pruitt was praised by many in the agriculture industry and Republican lawmakers in Iowa for suspending the Obama administration’s controversial Waters of the U.S. rule, a measure aimed at clarifying the requirements of the Clean Water Act.
However, the battles over the RFS left a bad taste with some of those same lawmakers, as did the spending allegations. Ernst described Pruitt in June as “about as swampy as you get.”
The president tweeted that Andrew Wheeler, the EPA’s deputy administrator, would take over as acting administrator of the agency.
Wheeler is a former coal lobbyist, but ethanol backers said Thursday they were hopeful Pruitt’s departure will mean a new start.
Ernst tweeted Thursday, “I have confidence that Andrew Wheeler will be a good partner at #EPA and I look forward to working with him on the #RFS.”
Grassley said he hoped Wheeler would “restore this administration’s standing with farmers and the biofuels industry.”
Industry officials were hopeful, too.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for a reset of the conversation,” said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association.
Pruitt has drawn fire over the RFS in recent weeks because of waivers the agency granted to refineries. Biofuels groups say the waivers lowered demand for renewable fuels.
Last month, when the EPA issued new volume requirements for 2019 that were higher than the previous year, industry officials and supporters in Congress were nonetheless skeptical. And they were upset the volumes that had been waived for some refineries weren’t reallocated to others.
Earlier, lawmakers and industry officials were angry over the idea EPA might count ethanol exports toward the legal requirement. The idea eventually was abandoned.
Read the original article: Biofuel Backers Hopeful for a Change as Pruitt Resigns
Ethanol Helps Fourth of July Travelers Declare Independence from High Gas Prices
July 3, 2018
By Rachel Gantz
A record number of travelers will take to America’s highways and byways this Fourth of July holiday, and ethanol will be lowering the price they pay for gasoline while simultaneously strengthening our nation’s energy security.
According to AAA, a record 39.7 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more by automobile for Independence Day—5 percent more than a year ago. Those drivers will be paying at least 12 percent less for gasoline—or $0.26 per gallon—thanks to ethanol, according to a new analysis by the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). In fact, ethanol is expected to reduce household spending on gasoline by $37 billion this year, or $292 per household.
The analysis also shows that if E15 were available nationwide in place of E10, consumers would be saving even more money. The wholesale savings currently attributable to E15 is $0.32 per gallon, or 15 percent lower than E0 gasoline.
“As a record number of travelers hit the roads this holiday, there is no better way to celebrate Independence Day than to fill up with fuel containing American-made ethanol. In addition to saving American families money at the pump, ethanol boosts rural economies and helps increase our energy independence,” said RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen.
U.S. dependence on imported petroleum is falling, thanks in part to booming domestic production of renewable fuels. In 2005, the year the original renewable fuel standard was adopted, America’s net dependence on foreign petroleum peaked at just over 60%. However, by 2017, net petroleum import dependence fell to just 20%, and would have been 27% without the addition of 15.8 billion gallons of domestically produced ethanol to the fuel supply. Last year, ethanol displaced an amount of gasoline refined from 560 million barrels of crude oil—more than the volume imported annually from Saudi Arabia and Venezuela combined.
Additionally, the U.S. ethanol industry continues to make a significant contribution to the economy. Last year, the industry supported nearly 360,000 direct, indirect, and induced jobs across all sectors of the economy, added more than $24 billion in income for American households, and generated an estimated $5 billion in tax revenue to the Federal Treasury and $5.7 billion in revenue to state and local governments.
Read the original article: Ethanol Helps Fourth of July Travelers Declare Independence from High Gas Prices
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Ethanol Production Continues Strong
June 29, 2018
By Cindy Zimmerman
U.S. ethanol production is continuing at a strong and steady pace, hitting a new four week high for the year, according to the latest Energy Information Administration data analyzed by the Renewable Fuels Association.
Last week, ethanol production averaged 1.072 million barrels per day (b/d) or 45.02 million gallons daily. Output grew 8,000 b/d over the week before, climbing to a 26-week high. The four-week average for ethanol production lifted to 1.057 million b/d, which is the highest this year, for an annualized rate of 16.20 billion gallons.
Stocks of ethanol were 21.7 million barrels. That is a 0.5% draw down from last week.
There were zero imports recorded for the 29th week in a row.
Read the original article: Ethanol Production Continues Strong
Scandals Haven't Beaten Pruitt. A Biofuel Policy Fight Might
June 29, 2018
By Jennifer Dlouhy
A deluge of political scandals hasn’t sunk EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. But a wonky debate over the nation’s biofuel policy just might.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley bluntly warned last month he would call for Pruitt’s resignation if the Environmental Protection Agency continued exempting small oil refineries from a mandate to use renewable fuels such as ethanol made from corn, a staple crop in his home state of Iowa.
When Pruitt moved to do what Grassley wanted -- with a plan that would force larger refineries to make up for the waivers by using more biofuel -- he sparked an intense, angry uproar among oil executives and allied lawmakers who telephoned top Trump administration officials to complain. Their not-so-subtle message: Pruitt’s job was on the line.
Pruitt’s long-term tenure at the helm of the EPA was already in doubt, as lawmakers, the White House and federal investigators look into allegations of ethical lapses, abuses of power and questionable spending.
Pruitt faces scrutiny over his costly travel, the $43,000 installation of a soundproof phone booth in his office and his penchant for enlisting aides to run personal errands (including contacting the chief executive officer of Chik-fil-A Inc. to pursue a franchise for Pruitt’s wife and trying to buy a second-hand mattress from the Trump International Hotel in Washington).
President Donald Trump has generally stood by Pruitt, praising his efforts to roll back Obama administration environmental regulations while acknowledging he is "not happy" with Pruitt’s personal lapses. Yet even with the president’s public support, the allegations intrude, providing rhetorical fodder to critics of EPA regulatory shifts and leverage to lawmakers pushing particular policy outcomes.
During the biofuel policy skirmish, at least one aide to Senator Ted Cruz made an explicit threat, warning administration officials that if the EPA didn’t back off the plan, the Texas Republican would seek Pruitt’s resignation.
Other top congressional Republicans -- including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, Pruitt’s home state, and Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania -- also protested the proposal. The lawmakers all have significant refining interests in their states, including facilities owned by HollyFrontier Corp., Valero Energy Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp.
The interactions were described by people familiar with the encounters who sought anonymity to describe the private conversations. Representatives for Cruz did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
"That issue brought together the entire spectrum of the oil refining industry," said Frank Macchiarola, a group director at the American Petroleum Institute. "The refining industry was unified."
The backlash worked. After the outcry, Pruitt agreed to abandon the plan as part of a proposed biofuel regulation -- at least for now.
The episode underscored how the cloud of allegations and ethical questions hovering over Pruitt are affecting his day-to-day work on intricate environmental policy, limiting his room to maneuver on sensitive issues. That includes the Renewable Fuel Standard, a 13-year-old mandate that pits oil refining and agricultural interests against each other in a zero-sum contest over gasoline market share.
"Forget the secret phone booth, Chik-fil-A and the mattress, the story is the RFS," said Tristan Berne, an analyst with the independent research firm Capital Alpha Partners LLC. "He managed to put himself in a sort of tug-of-war -- and he’s the rope."
The Renewable Fuel Standard has long been politically treacherous terrain; now, it’s even more fraught.
"His issues have given opponents free rein to take shots at him when they disagree with him," said Frank Maisano, a senior principal at Bracewell LLP. "It’s a little bit unfair, because he’s doing the best he can to address a very complex and difficult issue where there’s lots of disagreement and lots of competing interests."
It’s not clear that political threats against Pruitt or his other problems are affecting policy outcomes. The EPA has doggedly continued rewriting rules governing air pollution and climate change, with Pruitt just this week ordering new limits on the EPA’s ability to preemptively veto projects because of water pollution concerns.
And Deputy EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in an interview Wednesday that neither negative headlines nor concerns about them were "impacting our decisions or how he’s managing the agency at all."
Berne observed that in the biofuel policy dispute, Pruitt "didn’t act as though he had any political restraints on him." After all, the EPA’s decision not to immediately reallocate biofuel blending requirements was seen as a slap in the face of politically important agricultural interests.
Pruitt initially embraced the reallocation idea on June 18, following a tour through Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota, where he met with farmers angry that the EPA was exempting refineries from biofuel-blending requirements.
Federal law allows small refineries facing a "disproportionate economic hardship" to get the waivers. But Trump’s EPA is more liberally awarding the exemptions, which can be worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the refineries that qualify. And because farmers are on the front lines of the simmering trade war with China, the administration has less flexibility to address the issue, according to Craig Irwin, a senior research analyst with Roth Capital Partners LLC.
Key White House officials were not immediately aware of the EPA’s reallocation policy decision, according to a person familiar with the situation. The ensuing firestorm -- including phone calls to White House officials -- prompted the EPA’s swift pivot away from the plan.
But it didn’t quell the threats. Immediately after the EPA unveiled its stripped-down biofuel quota plan -- without the language the farm-state lawmakers wanted -- Grassley issued a statement casting the proposal as a betrayal of Trump’s campaign vow to support ethanol and invoking his powerful role as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
If the EPA doesn’t make up for the biofuel waivers, Grassley said, "Administrator Pruitt should let someone else do the job who won’t continue to undermine the president."
Read the original story: Scandals Haven't Beaten Pruitt. A Biofuel Policy Fight Might
Ethanol Summit Getting Industry, Environmental Regulators On Same Page
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
June 28, 2018
News Release
State regulators and biofuel industry leaders want Minnesota companies to be able to grow quickly and create jobs without sacrificing environmental standards.
With those common goals, they formed a public-private collaboration to reduce complexity and streamline the process for permitting while bolstering environmental compliance for all industries in the state. It started with a meeting last year of representatives from the state’s 20 ethanol plants and officials from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and Dept. of Agriculture.
With an eye toward environmental stewardship and clean business productivity, the second "ethanol summit" convened June 28 in Willmar to review progress and set future objectives.
Ethanol production plants operate with a variety of state and federal environmental permits regulating air emissions, water use, and stormwater and wastewater management.
“The meetings of the joint state-ethanol industry work group have resulted in a cooperative, improved understanding of how to work with each other,” says Sarah Kilgriff, manager of the land and air compliance in the MPCA’s Industrial Division. “It's already leading to better regulatory outcomes for the environment and producers in the ethanol industry.”
The meetings help to see other perspectives and create a better understanding of the complexity of the respective processes. The MPCA has defined the most urgent and useful information needed for the industry. The industry better understands how to work with the MPCA and the regulatory process.
The MPCA already has made some changes. New permit language allows more flexibility in making facility changes to avoid triggering the permit amendment process.
“Working together produces better outcomes for Minnesotans in terms of both the environment and economy compared with top-down regulation,” Kilgriff says. “Industry participants say they have great relationships with the MPCA and confidence that they can do a better job growing the industry.”
Minnesota is a national leader in ethanol policy and development. It was the first state to mandate the use of ethanol in motor vehicle fuel. State law requires that all gasoline sold in Minnesota contain 10 percent biofuel — that being exclusively ethanol.
The 20 plants in Minnesota produce more than one billion gallons of clean biofuel annually providing a market for more than 400 million bushels of corn. A by-product, distillers dried grains, is used for livestock feed.
Read the original release: Ethanol Summit Getting Industry, Environmental Regulators On Same Page
Lawmakers Demand Answers from EPA on Failed Implementation of Renewable Fuel Standard
June 20, 2018
Press Release
Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Committee on Agriculture today called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide additional information regarding their failed implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In a letter led by Congressman Dave Loebsack and Congresswoman Cheri Bustos, the members laid out a series of questions seeking information about the mismanagement of a program that provided waivers to some of our nation’s largest, most profitable refiners, but were intended to help support small refiners with demonstrated economic hardship and were in danger of going bankrupt. The group of 12 lawmakers is also seeking information about the EPA’s retroactive awarding of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINS), which undermine the biofuels market. The lawmakers have made repeated requests for this information, which the EPA has refused to answer. A copy of the letter can be found here.
“We write to convey our grave concerns and request additional information regarding your failed implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. We are deeply troubled by the lack of transparency and continued manipulation of the RFS program through your misuse of the small refinery exemption process,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to hurt farmers and undermine the biofuels market by extending waivers to an unusually large number of refineries. Additionally, your implementation of the RFS program is undercutting the market for renewable fuels, and inflicting further economic pain in rural communities and throughout the agriculture sector.”
“We remain extremely concerned about your implementation of the RFS program and its effects on rural communities. Your actions are clearly designed to enrich the oil industry at the expense of farmers and the renewable fuels industry by undermining the RFS program. We request that you suspend the small refinery exemption process until you provide Congress with information to evaluate this program,” the lawmakers concluded.
Read the original press release: Lawmakers Demand Answers from EPA on Failed Implementation of Renewable Fuel Standard