In comments submitted today, NFU President Roger Johnson urged the agency to account for all 4 billion gallons worth of demand lost to SREs and to establish provisions to prevent the future abuse of waivers.

“On the campaign trail and now as president, Donald Trump has sworn his allegiance to family farmers and ranchers and promised to uphold policies that ensure their prosperity. But actions speak louder than words – despite those promises, his EPA has repeatedly and deliberately undercut the American biofuels industry, prioritising the needs of multibillion-dollar oil corporations at farmers’ expense.

“President Trump then vowed to offset all harm caused by the mishandling of small refinery exemptions – yet another promise that he hasn’t kept. Though this supplemental proposed rule would make up for some of the lost demand, it does not go nearly far enough. Rather than calculate renewable volume obligations based on the actual exemptions granted, EPA has inexplicably proposed using a much lower number that would cut hundreds of millions of gallons from the 2020 targets alone.

“At a minimum, EPA must recalculate its obligations and it must reallocate all 4 billion gallons lost to exemptions since Trump took office. Further, we strongly urge the agency to prevent future abuses by providing greater transparency on both the criteria and the process for granting small refinery exemptions.”