The leader the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association says some good things came out of a White House meeting on ethanol Tuesday– but there are still some things that remain unsettled. I-R-F-A executive director Monte Shaw says the reports he got on the meeting from Iowa’s two U-S Senators was positive in one area. “There was some very good news,” Shaw says, “the president did agree to authorize the sale of E-15 year-round. That was talked about before, that was stated very clearly in the meeting and even (Texas Senator) Ted Cruz tweeted about that part of the meeting accurately. So, that’s something that we can take away from this.”

Shaw says there now needs to be action on the E-15 issue. “We need to see ’em do it, they need to get that process going,” Shaw says. One of the issues that Shaw says was left unresolved is handling the credits given to refineries for blending ethanol with gasoline that are commonly known as RINS. Shaw says Senator Cruz brought up a plan to let refineries get the credits for ethanol that is exported to count toward the gallons required under the Renewable Fuels Standard.

“It’s awfully hard for me to imagine how a program like that could even function number one — let alone be good for us,” Shaw says. “If you start allowing exported gallons of renewable fuels to count toward the R-F-S, it’s just gallon-for-gallon demand destruction. Every gallon we export is a gallon they don’t have to blend here in the United States.” Shaw says the reports he’s gotten indicate things should be moving the right way for ethanol.

“From what we’ve been told, everybody in that room from the president all the way down to Ted Cruz was on the same page that the president was going to move forward on E-15 year round sales. That is excellent news,”according to Shaw. “They all agreed — despite Cruz promoting this — that there was not going to be any type of RIN cap or R-F-S waiver scheme of the type that he was promoting. That is good news,” Shaw says.

He says another issue is the ethanol exemptions that were intended to help small refineries deal with the ethanol blend mandate that were given to large refineries. Shaw says Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue and E-P-A Administrator Scott Pruit are exploring that situation and will report back. “That was I would say an outstanding discussion that was not finalized and we have to now see what E-P-A Administrator Pruit and U-S-D-A Secretary Perdue come back with . They were charged with coming up with a plan that would deal with small refinery exemptions,” Shaw says.

He says the outcome could go either way. “They could come up with a plan that we could support and that’d be great. Or they might come up with a plan that says ‘hey we’re just going to do these export RINS’ — and that would be horrible and we would oppose that. So, we’ll just have to wait and see and the story continues,” Shaw explains.

Iowa is the nation’s leader in renewable fuels production with 43 ethanol refineries capable of producing nearly four-point-four (4.4) billion gallons annually.

(Radio Iowa)