A bipartisan group of senators representing corn belt states are petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency to stop waving federal biofuel standards for oil refineries, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported Tuesday.
Thirteen senators led by GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democrat Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota sent a letter earlier in April to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, asking to stop issuing “hardship” waivers from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and release the names of all refineries that have received waivers since 2016.
The RFS requires oil refineries to mix in a certain amount of corn-based ethanol into gas or purchase biofuel credits from the federal government. RFS waivers can be issued for a variety of reasons, such as in the case of a national or regional fuel shortage. Hardship waivers are granted to small refineries that risk shutting down if forced to comply with the costly regulations.
The senators claim Pruitt and the EPA are “undermining commitments President Trump made on the Renewable Fuel Standard to our constituents” after reports surfaced that Pruitt issued a waiver to the large oil company Andeavor. Chevron Corp and Exxon Mobil have also applied for waivers, Reuters reports.
The EPA has defended its decision to issue waivers to larger oil companies.
“EPA doesn’t have the authority to pick and choose which provisions of the RFS to follow,” the EPA said in a statement, according to the Star Tribune. “The agency has been both responsive and open about small refinery waivers, while being careful not to violate confidential business information protections.”
The EPA granted 25 waivers to various refineries, whose identities are protected as the confidential information for businesses, last year. The EPA normally issues less than half that number.
The RFS was enacted in 2005 in an effort to help farmers and reduce fossil fuel use while cutting fossil fuel imports, according to Reuters.
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