Betrayed farmers lobby EPA for ethanol
IFB VP decries ‘classic bait and switch,’ says, ‘The rules have changed and now rural America is losing’
A corn and soybean farm in central Illinois. Farmers feel betrayed by the Trump administration on the Renewable Fuel Standard, intended to provide incentives for biofuel production. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
Farmers are lobbying the Environmental Protection Agency to restore incentives for the ethanol industry in an increasingly bitter battle with fossil fuels favored by the Trump administration.
The Illinois Farm Bureau is urging its members to weigh in before the end of the month on proposed changes to the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard, intended to provide incentives for the production of ethanol and other biofuels. They say those changes are insufficient to address benefits granted to the oil industry and amount to a betrayal of the program.
IFB Vice President Brian Duncan, an Ogle County farmer with a 4,000-acre spread, delivered withering testimony at an EPA hearing on the matter last week in Michigan. At issue was waivers granted to refineries that undermine established quotas for ethanol production.
“When it worked as it was intended, the RFS was an economic game changer for Illinois agriculture,” Duncan said, according to a transcript of his testimony published Tuesday by FarmWeekNow.com. “The rules have changed. And now rural America is losing.”
According to Duncan, under Trump the EPA has shown “much greater propensity for granting small-refinery waivers than either of the two previous administrations.”
Farmers complained to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in Decatur this summer that the waivers granted to refineries — intended to benefit small startups, but instead given to major gasoline producers like Exxon and Chevron, according to Sen. Tammy Duckworth — had cut ethanol production by 2.6 billion gallons. Perdue said the waivers were “disappointing,” adding that even President Trump thought they were “way overdone,” but proposals to amend the Renewable Fuel Standard have not satisfied farmers.
Trump has touted his move to allow year-round sales of E-15, gas with 15 percent ethanol, but Duncan and the IFB say the administration’s reforms not only emphasize consumption over production, but they set standards based on past consumption, not goals to steadily increase production.
Duncan added last week, “We have lost approximately 1 billion bushels of corn being crushed for ethanol due to these waivers.” He said farmers were cheered when the Trump administration met with members of Congress over the summer to hammer out a resolution. U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis of Taylorville was among those greeting the proposals, but even then he said, “I look forward to seeing the details of this plan that will put us on the right path forward.”
“We had confidence and hope,” Duncan said, “but clearly, we did not know what was in the deal.”
Calling it a “classic bait and switch,” Duncan added, “For anybody in our world, and for anyone who cares about preserving the integrity of the RFS, it should be painfully obvious. This nation’s corn and soybean farmers need a better deal.”
On its webpage to provide commentary on the changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard, the IFB stated bluntly: “In a nutshell, EPA’s proposed rule fails to restore integrity to the RFS, could result in backsliding of ethanol production, and would prevent market recovery for farmers and keep ethanol plants shuttered.”
According to the IFB, the comment period on the proposal closes Nov. 29. IFB spokesman Adam Nielsen said, “We have an opportunity to influence this rulemaking, but it will take everyone’s help.”