Some renewable fuels advocates are questioning the Trump Administration’s commitment to biofuels in light of recent proposals from the EPA. Those proposals include reducing the RFS blend requirement for biodiesel and having U.S. biofuel export volumes count towards compliance with the RFS. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he expressed his concerns to President Trump in a phone conversation last Friday.

“I don’t want to say what the President said, but I was very satisfied with the position the President took in our discussion,” Grassley said. As a result of that conversation, Grassley and several of his Senate colleagues will be meeting with EPA administrator Scott Pruitt on October 17.  “I will tell administrator Pruitt that the proposal is counter to what the President has pledged,” Grassley said.

The EPA, Grassley added, appear to be undercutting the President’s support of biofuels. Grassley said while he has no direct evidence that the oil industry is pressuring the EPA on biofuels, he isn’t ruling out the possibility. “Big Oil may be accomplishing something in EPA it couldn’t get through Congress,” Grassley said. “And like a duck, if it quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s probably a duck.”

Grassley will be holding town meetings in Iowa next week during the Congressional recess.

(Radio Iowa)