OOPS! 'Your EPA went too far': Farmers hit hard by Trump EPA's new ethanol rules are fuming
Forty percent of total corn use in the U.S. is tied to growing ethanol production, according to the USDA.
nbcnews.com
Aug. 29, 2019, 2:07 PM MST
By Vaughn Hillyard and Dartunorro Clark
SHENANDOAH, Iowa — President Donald Trump won 93 out of Iowa’s 99 counties in the 2016 presidential race — the most for a GOP nominee since 1980 — thanks in no small part to local farmers. But now, farmers here are questioning if they'll vote for him again.
"Farmer tensions are running pretty tight out here right now,” Duane Aistrope, a corn and soybean farmer in Randolph, Iowa — roughly two hours southwest of Des Moines — told NBC News. "We got him elected out here in the Midwest — the farmers did."
The Midwest agricultural industry is up in arms not only due to the president's trade war, but because the Environmental Protection Agency recently exempted 31 small oil refineries from rules that would require them to blend ethanol, which comes from corn, into their fuel supply. Those exemptions are now forcing farmers to grapple with lost revenue from wasted crops.
New ethanol rules are testing farmers' support of President TrumpAUG. 29, 201904:43
Aistrope is one Midwestern corn farmer who, through the last two seasons, has battled depressed corn prices. Many farmers like him have stuck with Trump during his protracted trade war with China, arguing that the U.S. does need to fix its trade policy with Beijing. But now farmers such as Aistrope say these waivers are a step too far.
"Hopefully he’ll take care of us and do things right: Just uphold the laws for the ethanol industry that Congress put into place," Aistrope said.
The Renewable Fuel Standard is a law that requires the U.S. fuel supply to use a certain amount of corn ethanol in the country’s gasoline market to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the country’s reliance on imported oil, according to the EPA.
Corn makes up roughly one-third of crop produced in the U.S. and over the past several decades its production has steadily risen, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Forty percent of total corn use in the U.S. is tied to growing ethanol production, according to the agency. And Iowa is among the top corn-producing states.
However, since Trump took office, his EPA has issued 85 exemptions to oil refineries to stop blending ethanol in their fuel — a staggering increase from previous administrations. The waivers have extended to giant oil corporations such as Chevron and Exxon. As a result, more than one dozen ethanol plants have shut down or halted production across the country this year.
Steam rises from the POET LLC ethanol bio-refinery in Gowrie, Iowa, on May 17, 2019.Daniel Acker / Bloomberg via Getty Images file"Our demand has been destroyed by these small refinery exemptions, and that’s where we’re really focusing with the administration to say, 'Hey, look, you really have to fix this. Your EPA went too far,'" said Todd Becker, CEO of the Green Plains, a large ethanol production company that operates 13 corn ethanol plants in the region.
Becker says his company lost $150 million in profits in the last year. "The president has committed that he’s going to fix this for us, so we’re depending on that," Becker added.
As a result of the waivers, ethanol and corn prices have decreased 12 and 11 percent respectively, which could result in "a staggering $10 billion transfer of wealth from the agriculture and biofuel sectors to the oil industry," the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade organization, said in a statement last week. The organization also said that the waivers have reduced ethanol productions by 2.6 billion gallons and more than 2,500 jobs have been lost by recent closures.
On Thursday, the president tweeted about the ethanol industry, hinting that he would announce an aid package to help farmers. The president made a similar move for soybean farmers hit hard by his trade war with China.
Donald J. Trump
?@realDonaldTrump
The Farmers are going to be so happy when they see what we are doing for Ethanol, not even including the E-15, year around, which is already done. It will be a giant package, get ready! At the same time I was able to save the small refineries from certain closing. Great for all!
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Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, both Republicans, sent a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler last week urging the administration to reconsider the exemptions. |
