Governors’ Biofuels Coalition lays out suggestions for Trump to improve biofuels policy

In Washington, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem sent a letter to President Trump thanking him for working with agricultural leaders and biofuels producers to help mitigate the damage done by the small refinery waivers but also recommended additional steps the Administration could take to grow the nation’s biofuels industry.  Governor Walz and Governor Noem are the chair and vice chair of the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition.

The governors also urged the President to use his “… executive authority to restore and grow the nation’s agriculture and biofuels industries…” by taking the following administrative actions now:

• • Direct EPA to enforce the Clean Air Act and reduce the aromatics in gasoline, opening new market opportunities for ethanol to replace toxics and give refiners more options to meet octane demand with high octane ethanol. Replacing hazardous aromatics in gasoline with biofuel will reduce carbon emissions and will provide incalculable health benefits, especially for those Americans living in urban areas.
• • Direct EPA to extend the RVP waiver to higher ethanol blends, including E30.  Efforts to revitalize rural growth must include a waiver for all ethanol blends above E15, including E30.
• • Direct EPA to update its lifecycle carbon findings. EPA’s estimate of lifecycle carbon emissions associated with ethanol have not been updated for a decade, thereby permitting the use of obsolete data to distort the public’s perception of biofuels’ environmental benefits.
• • Direct EPA to approve applications for the production of cellulosic ethanol from corn kernel fiber for D3 RIN credit. Applications seeking D3 RIN approval have been delayed in EPA’s regulatory process, resulting in millions of cellulosic biofuel gallons withheld from the marketplace because of regulatory delay.