The White House brought oil and ethanol industry representatives together last week for a meeting on the Renewable Fuels Standard, but no deal was struck. Texas Senator Ted Cruz put a “hold” on Bill Northey’s USDA nomination as leverage to demand President Trump and corn state Senators negotiate a solution to reforming the RFS.
American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings says Cruz claims he’s concerned about the prices refiners are paying for RIN or Renewable Identification Number credits under the RFS, but there’s an easy fix to that.
He says if year-round round sales of E15 were allowed an additional 700 million gallons of ethanol would be blended.
Jennings says the meeting didn’t produce a deal and in fact the only suggestion Cruz offered was a cap on RIN prices, which is a non-starter with the ethanol industry and is not even legal. At the same time President Trump reiterated his support for the RFS.
Jennings says Cruz is just trying to find leverage with the Northey “hold” to prevent renewable fuels from having greater market share on behalf of Big Oil, but he’s running out of time.
He also says the Senate has other ways to advance the Northey nomination, especially with only 50 votes needed to appoint a cabinet position.
