President Donald Trump reportedly has instructed EPA to deny so-called gap-year small refinery exemptions (SREs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in a bid to bolster his support in farm country, according to a report from Reuters. The action would take the form of a direction from the White House, the report noted, and comes as Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is facing a challenge in her bid for reelection to the US Senate in November.
When Trump visited Iowa in August to learn more about the derecho storm impacts, Ernst repeatedly pressed Trump on the SRE issue, extracting a promise that he would talk to EPA on about the situation.
EPA was flooded with gap-year SREs in the wake of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in January that three SREs issued for the 2016 compliance year were invalid as they did not amount to extensions of prior SREs. That prompted multiple requests for SREs to be filed going back to the 2011 compliance year.
Meanwhile, Politico is reporting that the Department of Justice has decided not to appeal the 10th Circuit Court ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, another sign the administration has opted to side with biofuel backers on the issue.
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