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Governors’ Biofuels Coalition disappointed in EPA biofuels proposal

The Governors’ Biofuels Coalition is urging the EPA to honor President Trump’s commitment to follow the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, the co-chairs of the Coalition, wrote Administrator Wheeler detailing the group’s disappointment with the agency’s supplemental biofuels proposal.

The governors pointed to the EPA’s plan to follow Department of Energy recommendations for exempted volumes instead of actual waived gallons.

The letter says the solution is to use a three-year rolling average of actual exempted gallons as the basis to project 2020 exempted volumes.

Meanwhile, Minnesota Biofuels Association director Tim Rudnicki, testifying during a hearing on EPA’s proposed rule Wednesday, accused the EPA of undermining the RFS.

“And there are four points of evidence the abuse of the small refinery waiver, the loss of the 4.6 billion-gallons of renewable biofuel, the 2018 blend rate which plunged to 1007 percent, and really the sham of the supplemental proposal.”

Rudnicki instructed EPA to comply with the 15 billion-gallon statute, streamline access to E15, and to work more closely with the USDA.

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