News

Governors ask Trump to support the biofuels industry

The Governors’ Biofuels Coalition has sent a letter to President Trump asking him to take steps to support the nation’s biofuels industry.

Coalition chair Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts says one of those steps is to enforce the Renewable Fuels Standard as intended by Congress.

“It’s important that we follow the law. It’s one of the complaints that I as governor had with the previous administration—that they went around Congress,” Ricketts says. “We want to stay with what Congress has mandated. If you think that the Renewable Fuels Standard is wrong, you need to go back to Congress and change it. That’s the way our system is supposed to work.”

The governors also asked Trump to have the U.S. EPA remove barriers to the use of higher ethanol blends and to update the lifecycle carbon findings of biofuels to more accurately reflect their environmental benefits.

Ricketts says the governors will continue to stress the importance of biofuels to the Trump Administration.

“It creates thousands of jobs across our states. It’s a great thing for us to help the environment. It’s a great thing to make us less dependent on foreign oil,” he says. “This is a really important industry and we want to make sure we get a fair shake from Washington, D.C.”

The letter to Trump was signed by Ricketts, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard.

AUDIO: Governor Pete Ricketts