A key U.S. senator calls the latest Environmental Protection Agency ethanol waivers granted to oil refiners, “ridiculous,” and calls on agency chief Andrew Wheeler not to repeat the mistakes of his predecessor. Senate Finance Chairman and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley was asked if the EPA’s Wheeler, like his predecessor Scott Pruitt, is again playing politics by splitting decisions between ethanol and petroleum:
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So, while Wheeler vows to Grassley and others to approve year-round E15 sales by the June first start of the summer driving season, he continues to approve ethanol waivers for oil refiners:
The waivers erase some 2.6 billion gallons of ethanol demand, or nearly 1-billion bushels of corn, with a falloff in the fuel’s use last year, for the first time in 20-years. Grassley says the E15 year-round sales rule will help, but its ethanol credit reforms could hurt:
Grassley says politics must be left out of the law and Wheeler’s trying to both solve the oil industry’s problem with once costly ethanol credits, while also approving year-round E15. But whether giving to ethanol with ‘one-hand’ and ‘taking away’ with the other, is truly politics, Grassley claims, will take a few more months to know, as more waivers are decided.