Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley this spring sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency outlining his concerns with RFS waiver granting to a number of refiners. He just recently received a response from the agency that they will not divulge the individual names of refiners requesting waivers. South Dakota Corn Growers Association President Troy Knecht is concerned with the agency’s lack of transparency on the issue.
Knecht who serves as a Board member for the American Coalition for Ethanol says it’s concerning that a Senator like Chuck Grassley can’t get the information he’s seeking from the EPA. He says it shows what a big influence the oil industry has on the federal government.
Knecht realizes that Grassley’s letter was sent when Scott Pruitt was EPA administrator. He’s hopeful the interim Administrator Andrew Wheeler will take a more open approach and follow the RFS the way it was intended by Congress.
In their letter to Senator Grassley, the EPA indicated that 20 refiners requested the waiver in 2016 with 19 approved and 1 denied. The agency said in 2017, 33 requests were made with 29 granted and 4 still being processed. There were no requests for 2018.
