The legal deadline for the EPA to finalize biofuel requirements for 2022 has come and gone with no action, and that has one U.S. Senator pointing the finger at the Oval Office.
Renewable Volume Obligations or RVOs were due Tuesday. Longtime ethanol booster and Iowa Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley says the ‘buck stops at the Oval Office’.
“This is the date that these should be finalized, and they aren’t going to be finalized, and that’s bad news for ethanol. The president campaigned on support for biofuels, when he was campaigning in Iowa, and he’s a ‘green energy’ guy. Biofuels are much more energy, environmentally positive than petroleum products.”
So, Grassley has this advice; “He should put his actions as president, where his mouth was during the campaign, and so, all he has to do is pick up the phone and call the director of EPA and say, ‘get these volumes out.’”
But the Renewable Fuels Association says refiners don’t even have blending requirements for this year, so there’s no way EPA can ask them to show compliance for new standards in a few months.
Meantime, Grassley says biofuel producers, corn and soybean growers will continue to face demand and price uncertainty.
