Contact: Cassidy Walter
515-252-6249

JOHNSTON, IOWA – EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt met with Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst to discuss their concerns over recent EPA proposals to roll back the renewable fuel standard (RFS). In response to this announcement Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw made the following statement:

“IRFA is proud of the way Senators Grassley and Ernst have stood up to the latest EPA proposals to roll back the RFS. In Iowa we tend to give folks the benefit of the doubt. But after the July RFS proposal, the October proposal for further cuts, and the recently exposed export RINs scheme there is no doubt – Administrator Pruitt is not going to implement the letter and spirit of the law as he promised. It is time for President Trump to provide a course correction that gets the EPA back on track with his commitment to rural voters to protect the RFS.

“What can you say about today? Pruitt sits there and says he’ll do nothing to undermine the RFS. But it is his signature on the July RFS proposal that for the first time reduces overall renewable fuel use and cuts cellulosic ethanol by 25 percent. It’s his signature on the October proposal to make unprecedented retroactive cuts to existing biodiesel levels and to cut future biodiesel levels compared to the previous year. It’s Pruitt and his staff who are actively discussing an illegal scheme to gut the corn ethanol RFS level by allowing export RINs to count toward the RFS. If this is Pruitt doing nothing to undermine the RFS then we sure don’t want to see him doing something.”

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association represents the state’s liquid renewable fuels industry and works to foster its growth. Iowa is the nation’s leader in renewable fuels production with 43 ethanol refineries capable of producing 4 billion gallons annually – including nearly 55 million gallons of annual cellulosic ethanol production capacity – and 12 biodiesel facilities with the capacity to produce over 380 million gallons annually. For more information, visit the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association website at: www.IowaRFA.org.

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