President Trump decided to indefinitely delay a memo proposing changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard.

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings has released a statement following that news that President Trump has decided to indefinitely delay a memo proposing changes to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) including allowing refiners to get Renewable Identification Number credits on exports of renewable fuel.

“ACE extends our gratitude to Republican and Democratic Senators, especially Iowa Senators Grassley and Ernst, for convincing the White House not to proceed with changes to (RFS),” said Jennings in the statement. “We appreciate the President in this case sided with farmers over oil refiners and EPA Administrator Pruitt. We also thank our grassroots members who contacted their Members of Congress and the White House.”

The RFS requires oil refiners to mix increasing volumes of biofuels like ethanol into the nation’s fuel each year, and prove compliance by earning or acquiring blending credits that must be handed in to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“Granting RVP relief for E15 in exchange with export Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits for refiners would have unquestionably been a loss for rural America and consumers because the benefits of selling E15 year-round would have been wiped out by export RINs.

EPA PETITIONED

Earlier this week a coalition of biofuel and agriculture groups petitioned the EPA to change its regulations to account for lost volumes of renewable fuel resulting from the unprecedented number of retroactive small refinery exemptions from RFS obligations recently granted by the EPA. The parties on the petition are the Renewable Fuels Association, American Coalition for Ethanol, Growth Energy, National Biodiesel Board, National Corn Growers Association, Biotechnology Industry Organization and National Farmers Union.

This petition comes days after several ethanol and farm groups challenged three specific small refinery exemptions granted by EPA. While the lawsuit in the Tenth Circuit challenged those exemptions as wrongly decided, this petition to EPA seeks a broader, forward-looking remedy to account for the collective lost volumes caused by the unprecedented number of retroactive small refinery exemptions.

“The President has promised to allow E15 use year-round but EPA has failed to make good on his promise,” said Jennings. “Meanwhile, EPA’s misuse of the RFS has resulted in at least 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol demand destruction through small refinery waivers which have driven RIN values down by more than 70 percent this year. ACE has joined with allies to litigate the ‘hardship’ waivers but damage has already been done as ethanol blending is down despite the fact that gasoline use is on the rise. We need EPA to follow through on the President’s promise that E15 use will be allowed year-round and to stop the secret refinery waivers. We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to grow demand for ethanol.”