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Ethanol producer questions if Trump administration shares Midwest concerns

A Wisconsin ethanol producer says the EPA’s new biofuels blending plan is not what he was expecting.  Neal Kemmet from ACE Ethanol in Stanley, Wisconsin tells Brownfield the industry had a deal to help make up for the wrongs committed by the EPA over the last three years, where refinery exemptions dropped ethanol demand by 4.5 billion gallons. “We had agreed upon a mechanism to kind of make up for that going forward, or at least minimize the damage. The mechanism or the way to make that up was quite a bit different than what we all agreed to.”

Kemmet says President Trump seems to try standing with rural America but notices that his staff is primarily from the south and east, and he questions if they have the Midwest interests at heart. “If you’re results-driven like you have to be when you live off agriculture, the results just aren’t there, so the talk is cheap. We rely on actions and the actions just haven’t been there for us.”

Kemmet says he and others in the industry will keep putting pressure on the EPA to make sure the law passed by Congress is followed. “If that happens, then everybody is going to be happy but certainly, there’s been a propensity for certain segments of this administration to play fast and loose with the rules.”

Ace Ethanol manufactures ethanol, CO2, and dry ice, and operates plants in Stanley, Green Bay, and Oshkosh Wisconsin.

Note:  ACE Ethanol is the name of this Wisconsin ethanol producing company.  It is not the American Coalition for Ethanol, although they have similar viewpoints on the EPA issues.