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Pruitt’s honesty questioned by RFA CEO

Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen suggests EPA administrator Scott Pruitt has been less than truthful about oil refinery hardship waivers.

Responding to Pruitt’s comments to farmers on a recent tour of the Midwest about the Department of Energy being to blame for the exemptions, Dinneen says it suggests he doesn’t have a great relationship with the truth.

“We had known there were certainly times when the Department of Energy would recommend either half of the obligation be waived or none of the obligation be waved, and EPA still waived 100 percent of it.”

He tells Brownfield the waiver process is fraught with corruption and should’ve been addressed in the 2019 Renewable Volume Obligation proposal.

“We had thought EPA was going to address the small refinery waiver process in this rule.  In fact, the agency had developed language outlining a new, more transparent process moving forward in which gallons would actually be reallocated.”

But Dinneen says Pruitt removed that language earlier this week.

The RVO proposal maintains conventional ethanol volumes at 15 billion gallons for 2019.  It also increases quotas for biodiesel and advanced biofuels under the RFS.