Trump EPA finalizes 2020 biofuel rule, corn lobby objects - Reuters

FILE PHOTO: POET Biorefining plant in Cloverdale, Indiana, U.S. October 29, 2019. REUTERS/Bryan Woolston

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Trump administration finalized U.S. biofuel blending requirements for 2020 on Thursday, leaving a key part of the rule unchanged from an earlier proposal that the corn lobby had criticized as inadequate to help struggling farmers.

The move is destined to anger biofuel industry officials and corn-state senators who had pushed hard for changes until the 11th hour, potentially threatening President Donald Trump’s support among farmers ahead of next year’s election.

Under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the Environmental Protection Agency is charged with setting biofuel blending requirements for the refining industry to help farmers by boosting demand for corn- and soybean-based fuels, while reducing U.S. dependence on oil.

The finalized rule increases the volume for blending requirements to 20.09 billion gallons in 2020, up from 19.92 billion gallons in 2019. The mandate included 15 billion gallons of conventional biofuels like ethanol, unchanged from 2019.

But the point of contention involves a plan the EPA introduced in the rule to compensate the biofuel industry for the agency’s expanded use of exemptions from the requirements given to oil refiners.

The Trump administration’s EPA has roughly quadrupled the number of the so-called Small Refinery Exemptions to help refiners in financial distress, something corn farmers and biofuel producers say has undercut demand for ethanol.

First unveiled by EPA in October, the plan raises the biofuel volumes that some refineries must blend in 2020 based on U.S. Energy Department recommendations for volumes that should be exempted. The rule finalizes the methodology based on the 2016-2018 annual average of DOE recommendations.

The biofuel industry wanted the adjustments to be based on actual volumes waived, since the EPA routinely waives higher volumes than the DOE recommends.

“EPA had an opportunity to restore the broken trust of farmers and to follow through on the president’s commitment, but it appears they’ve missed the mark ... again,” Iowa Senator Joni Ernst, a biofuels advocate, said after the rule was announced on Thursday.

Reporting by Stephanie Kelly; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Evans

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Trump EPA finalizes 2020 biofuel rule, corn lobby objects - Reuters
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