Just yesterday, Klobuchar sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asking the agency to document the impact of small refinery waivers on farm income, commodity prices, and renewable fuel usage
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released the following statement on the White House announcement that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will begin a supplemental rulemaking to the 2020 Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO) to account for gallons anticipated to be lost to small refinery exemptions (SREs). They also announced an expansion of market access for E15.
“Today’s announcement is an attempt at damage control for the hardship the President has brought to farmers, ethanol producers, and the rural economy, and we shouldn’t be praising him for it. This is a fix for a problem that the White House caused, and it comes too late for the rural communities that have been hurt.
“The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) supports American jobs, decreases our dependence on foreign oil, and invests in cleaner energy, and we need it to remain strong. This rulemaking won’t recover the over four billion gallons of renewable fuel that we’ve lost to refinery exemptions in the last few years. Under this plan, those gallons—and the important impact they could have had on our environment—are gone forever. The EPA and the Administration have been providing dozens of oil exemptions to help some of the largest oil companies and refiners evade their compliance obligations under the Clean Air Act, undermining the original intent of the RFS and breaking their promise to rural America.
“The real solution is to stop the President from giving exemptions to his friends in big oil and cease issuing any further improper refinery exemptions, as I’ve been calling for since these abuses began.”
For years, Klobuchar has also been a leader in the fight to strengthen the RFS to support American jobs and decrease dependence on foreign oil. Klobuchar has led several letters urging the Administration to cease issuing small refinery waivers and reject changes to the RFS that would upend stability and predictability for small businesses and rural communities. Just yesterday, Klobuchar sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue asking the agency to document the impact of small refinery waivers on farm income, commodity prices, and renewable fuel usage.
Klobuchar has also led a bipartisan push for the EPA to allow for the year-round sale of E15, including letters to the Administration urging them to expand waivers for the sale of E15 in the summer months. Klobuchar is an original cosponsor of the bipartisan Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act, which would amend the Clean Air Act to allow for the year-round sale of E15.
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