Growth Energy: Farm advocates & plant operators press President Trump to defend biofuels

WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a letter today, 93 farm organizations, biofuel stakeholders, and plant managers from across the country called on President Trump to “stand up against an urgent threat facing rural communities” and reject oil industry exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“Our communities are still working to rebuild America’s agricultural supply chain in the wake of COVID-19,” wrote the farm and biofuel supporters. “Recent storms that swept the Midwest, impacting millions of acres, only add greater urgency of the situation. The last thing we can afford is more needless uncertainty fueled by an endless battle with Washington bureaucrats.”

“We’ve seen too many plants shut down, too many jobs lost, and too many farmers deprived of vital markets,” they added.

The letter was offered in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ongoing consideration of nearly 100 refinery exemptions, including 67 retroactive ‘gap-year’ petitions designed to circumvent a court decision restoring integrity to the nation’s biofuel targets.

“America’s farmers and biofuel workers need to see the White House finally put an end to EPA’s demand destruction,” says Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “These so-called ‘gap-year’ exemptions represent a clear attempt to sidestep the law at the expense of rural communities. Every day the EPA does not act, the agency is injecting more uncertainty into the market and threatening the rural recovery.”

Read the full letter here.