Tell EPA to stop going rogue! Make your voice heard on the E15 ethanol issue!

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association issued this alert Aug. 8, urging farmers and everyone to help protect Iowa’s ethanol and biodiesel industry by signing a petition telling EPA to stop undermining biofuel demand. The petition closes on Aug. 16, so you need to act now.

Visit the IRFA website and sign the petition at iowarfa.org.

“EPA has jeopardized the future of ethanol and biodiesel producers and farmers by failing to address the harm done by small-refinery exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard,” says Monte Shaw, executive director of IRFA. “This destroyed over 2 billion gallons of ethanol demand and 300 million gallons of biodiesel demand in 2016 and 2017.”

EPA should follow law on RFS
EPA needs to be doing what the RFS calls for, as Congress intended when it passed the RFS legislation 13 years ago, Shaw says.

Two weeks ago, during a roundtable discussion with Iowans in Dubuque, President Donald Trump said he is “very close” to moving forward on year-round E15 sales. In response to those remarks. Shaw issued the following statement:

“We appreciate President Trump coming to Iowa and acknowledging the need for year-round E15 sales. Opening up E15 would create a new market for renewable fuel producers and farmers here at home. But we are concerned that the President is being told it is ‘a very complex process’ — which likely refers to some people in the Administration wanting to package E15 relief with other anti-biofuels provisions.

“President Trump himself has previously called the restriction on E15 ‘unnecessary and ridiculous’ and EPA has publicly stated it has the authority to grant E15 relief from the rule banning the sale of E15 during summer months. Given the past demand destruction and ongoing limits to ethanol exports, it is unnecessary and ridiculous to delay year-round E15 one more day. Now is the time to keep the President’s promise to remove restrictions on higher blends. Now is the time to take this simple step to create a new domestic market for ag commodities.

“The new head of EPA recently told reporters the agency would not be moving forward with year-read E15 sales absent some sort of package deal that included more benefits for petroleum interests, like the possibly illegal export RINs scheme that would devastate demand. Well, Iowans are asking where was the package deal when EPA destroyed over two billion gallons of demand with dubious small refinery exemptions? Where was the package deal when over 300 million gallons were destroyed with the sweetheart PES oil refinery bankruptcy giveaway? Where was the package deal when the trade dispute slammed the door shut on the potential 500 million-gallon Chinese export market for ethanol?

Petition closes Aug. 16
“We urge farmers, consumers and everyone to sign our petition now,” Shaw says. “It’s time for this Administration to own up to the damage it has inflicted-on biofuels producers and their farmer suppliers. Petroleum has already gotten their bite at the apple. It is time to make things right for agriculture.”

IRFA represents Iowa’s liquid renewable fuels industry and works to foster its growth. Iowa is the nation’s leader in renewable fuel production with 43 ethanol refineries capable of producing nearly 4.4 billion gallons annually — including 55 million gallons of annual cellulosic ethanol production capacity — and 12 biodiesel facilities with the capacity to produce 400 million gallons annually.