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Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation awarded almost $16 million dollars in grants to 25 airports in Iowa including some in the Siouxland. The biggest amount of $900,000 goes to the Sioux Gateway Field in Sioux City for taxiway reconstruction. Several smaller airports in the region also received money from the federal government including Storm Lake, Mapleton, Denison and the Sioux County Regional Airport in Maurice. That facility gets the smallest grant in the area of $270,000 for snow removal equipment.
4th district Congressman Steve King, a member of the Congressional Biofuel Caucus, has released the text of a letter he sent to President Trump today. The letter asks the President to make a declarative statement that a minimum of 15 billion gallons will be blended annually and that all gallons actually waived will be annually recaptured under the RFS.”
The letter to President Trump was prompted by both the Environmental Protection Agency’s use of small refinery exemptions to undermine the volume requirements contained in the Renewable Fuel Standard. The letter also references the failure of the EPA to guarantee that 15 billion gallons of ethanol will be blended under the Renewable Volume Obligation rule. King maintains that the EPA’s failure to enforce the volume requirements has led to an unfair advantage for petroleum,
North Dakota regulators yesterday unanimously approved expanded capacity for the Dakota Access pipeline. The Public Service Commission signaled last month that it was likely to give the OK for a permit. The permit gives approval for a pumping station to allow Energy Transfer to double the capacity of the pipeline.
Energy Transfer says the station is needed to meet the growing demand for oil shipments from North Dakota. Opponents say the expansion would increase the possibility of an oil spill.
Texas-based Energy Transfer proposed doubling the capacity of the pipeline last year to meet the growing demand for oil shipments from North Dakota, without the need for additional pipelines or rail shipments.
