Wheeler Highlights Trump’s Commitment To Ethanol

Corn growers became bigger fans of the Environmental Protection Agency over the past week, when the agency announced two decisions benefiting farmers. The first arrived Monday, when the EPA announced it would deny 58 of the 67 “gap-year” waivers sought by small oil refiners to establish a continuous line of exemptions from the Renewable Fuels Standard. Administrator Andrew Wheeler says that this, coupled with President Trump’s announcement that states could permit retailers to sell unleaded fuel with up to 15 percent ethanol blended in, shows the president’s commitment to ethanol.

Wheeler notes that another 33 waivers, all for the current year, are still under consideration and pending court action.

Approval of RFS waivers had accelerated under the tenure of Wheeler’s predecessor at the EPA, Scott Pruitt, resulting in the loss of four billion gallons of ethanol from the nation’s fuel supply. Administrator Wheeler was in Webster County on Friday morning to discuss the RFS and approval of the re-registration of the herbicide atrazine.