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ACE CEO says more hurdles ahead for U.S. ethanol

The CEO of the American Coalition for Ethanol says there are several hurdles ahead for the ethanol industry.

Brian Jennings tells Brownfield he wants Congress to update the Clean Air Act during the lame duck session to set permanent standards for E-15.

“We can keep pleading with EPA to help provide emergency waivers, and you know, fortunately, they’ve done that, but that’s not a long term strategy, so we’re going to need Congress to step in, and I think we’re getting inching closer and closer to that,” he says.

Jennings says he’s disappointed in a federal court’s recent ruling overruling the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to exclude small oil refineries from the nation’s biofuels blending program.

“The DC Circuit Court is unfortunately returning those back to EPA and forcing the agency to go through those denials on all individual basis and look at the unique circumstances facing those refineries and re-evaluate whether they ought to allow for an exemption or if the Biden EPA can deny them,” he says.

Brownfield interviewed Jennings at the American Coalition for Ethanol’s annual conference in Omaha, Nebraska.