(Bloomberg) — The Trump administration has decided to pare the number of waivers from biofuel mandates that it issues oil refineries, according to two people familiar with the matter.
The decision in response to a January court ruling represents a win for biofuel producers who have battled the exemptions and accused the Trump administration of siding with the oil industry on the issue.
The terrain is politically fraught for President Donald Trump, dividing two of his key political constituencies: agriculture and the oil industry. Trump promised to support corn-based ethanol while campaigning in Iowa four years ago but also has cultivated support among Rust Belt voters and the oil industry that oppose the biofuel mandate.
A three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in January that the Environmental Protection Agency wrongly waived three refineries from requirements to use plant-based fuels. In its ruling, a judges said that refineries must have consistently received those waivers since the program began in 2008 to qualify for them.
In response, the EPA will apply the ruling nationwide, according to the people who asked for anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That approach means that only a handful of oil refineries likely will qualify for the waivers going forward, down from dozens in recent years.
Oil industry advocates have been lobbying the White House to appeal the 10th Circuit ruling, arguing that if it is applied nationwide, a dramatic reduction in exemptions would put small refineries at risk of closing — including ones in swing states key to Trump’s re-election.
Several drafted letters pressing Trump on the issue also are circulating among oil industry allies on Capitol Hill, raising the possibility that last-minute pressure could spur the White House to alter course. White…
Source: FuelFix
