Iowa biofuels groups are calling on President Donald Trump to step in to resolve a dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency.
This week, the EPA released a proposal to make up for lost demand from waivers allowing small oil refineries to use less ethanol and biodiesel. But the plan only covers about half of the industry’s annual losses. Ethanol producers like Plymouth Energy in Merrill were shut down for weeks at a time this year because of the effect of biofuels waivers to oil refineries.
Monte (MON-tee) Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association, says that contradicts a deal made with the White House to restore the full amount.
The final decision will be the president’s and he’ll be held accountable for that. But I’m still optimistic that he struck a deal and I think with Mr. Trump a deal’s a deal.
Shaw says the waivers cost the industry about 1.3 billion gallons of ethanol demand each year and play a factor in some plants shutting down.
Iowa 4thdistrict congressional candidate Randy Feenstra has moved past the half-million-dollar mark in fundraising as he seeks to unseat fellow Republican and incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve King in 2020.
JD Scholten is the sole Democrat in that congressional race and he had the best quarter of the year of any of the candidates.
Scholten is seeking the seat for the second time after losing to King by 3 percent in 2018. He entered the race in August after the quarterly period started, and brought in more than 408 thousand dollars.
