Posted on 05/26/2019 11:12:12 AM PDT by Kaslin
The ethanol wars between King Corn and the oil and gas industry continue, with the corn faction finding a new champion this month in the person of Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois). It shouldn’t come as any surprise that she’s teaming up with Senators Ernst and Grassley since Illinois is the third largest ethanol producer in the country. The fight is still going on over the EPA granting waivers to smaller refineries from the ethanol blending requirements in the Renewable Fuel Standard, but Duckworth is raising the stakes. She’s asking the EPA’s Inspector General to investigate whether or not Trump’s EPA broke the law by granting these waivers. (Washington Examiner)
Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth asked the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general Thursday to investigate whether the agency broke the law in granting dozens of waivers to the oil industry to not blend corn ethanol into the gasoline supply.
Duckworth said new documents show that EPA has deceived members of Congress about its reasons for granting 35 small refinery exemptions in the last two years, compared to the seven granted under the Obama administration.
“Recent document disclosures reveal that the EPA misled Members of Congress, industry and the public,” the senator said in a letter to EPA acting Inspector General Charles Sheehan. “This deception by EPA political appointees may indicate improper motives and conflicts of interest, and it warrants a thorough review.”
The number of things wrong with this story and the coverage it’s receiving is staggering, but let’s just get the big ticket items out of the way. First of all, there’s nothing illegal about the EPA issuing these waivers. Perhaps the Senator has never read the pertinent regulations, but the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) includes specific language granting the EPA the ability to issue waivers “if they prove that compliance would cause disproportionate hardship.” Such hardship is generally faced by smaller, older refineries that lack the capability to blend ethanol or lack the capacity to blend it at the continually increasing levels demanded under the RFS.
Secondly, Duckworth is making the claim that Trump’s EPA has granted 35 exemptions (waivers) while only seven were granted during the Obama administration. That figure is being repeated by multiple news outlets. But EPA records show that the EPA granted 14 in 2015 and 20 in 2016. (For those who were promised there would be no math, that’s only one less than the Trump administration granted in its first two years.)
Duckworth is also complaining that some of the waivers shouldn’t have been granted because they were given to refineries “attached to large oil companies such as Exxon.” The implication here is that the big oil companies don’t have those limitations on ethanol blending like the older, small outfits. But even the big companies that run a lot of refineries have some smaller, older plants in their portfolio. And those have the same limitations as the ones owned by the smaller companies.
The reality here is that Duckworth, just like Grassley and Ernst (this is a bipartisan problem), are in the pocket of the ethanol lobby and continually seek to prop up the corn and soybean growers while trying to use the power of the government to damage the oil and gas industry. They don’t want to have the waivers issued because they know it will lead to more artificial, government-mandated demand for ethanol while bankrupting refineries, literally in some cases. This request for an investigation is a partisan ploy, working at the expense of private industry.
If it doesn’t stop raining, there isn’t going to be enough corn to distill
Fascist Crony Capitalists fighting with Communist Progs for maximum inefficiency in energy usage.
Despite her on line diploma from Capella University, Duckworth isn’t that bright. She has constantly played upon her military service as a disabled veteran to garner votes (Dick Durbin recruited her as the Democrats next Max Cleland).
She is a political lightweight.
“Duckworth is also complaining...”
Where else but Illinois could this nobody become a Senator? Oh, wait, they helped 0bama become president too! Good old Chicagoland. (I LOVE the rest of IL!)
I live in Corn Country. It’s been so wet, with MORE on the way next week that no one can get their corn in, anyhow! There might not BE any corn this season.
But, you know, all them ‘smart’ people in Congress know everything under the sun, so we just need to shut up and pay our taxes.
*Rolleyes*
P.S. Joni Ernst. WHAT a disappointment she’s been! She went straight from a Farm Gal to a Swamp Rat!
*SPIT*
I don’t understand the article. I’ve been told by multiple tanker drivers that ethanol is added to the tank at the terminal. It’s stored separately from gasoline at the terminal.
She went to Washington as a supposed opponent of pork. Unless there is something out there, I haven’t seen anything about her standing up to wasteful legislation.
The writer probably doesn’t understand either. Without understanding RINs, the details don’t make sense.
Ethanol is mixed at pipeline terminals, not at the refinery, but the refineries have to buy RINs that guaranty the ethanol will be added when the gasoline leaves the refinery.
Small refiners don’t have to buy RINs.
(RIN = Renewable Identification Number)
So many things are being exposed about DC. Absolutely not one single thing is good. These people are just flat out dumb. And we expect them, at least some do, to be able to go there and write and vote on laws and do work that is a benefit to the people. And, daily, they prove that if breathing weren’t involuntary, they’d all die because they’re that dumb.
This duckworth loser is a back bencher supreme. Other than collect a large check for doing nothing, what has she accomplished that is good for the Country ands its Citizens?
Thanks for the explanation.
With the democrats in control of the House, it is like putting the fattest kid in charge of the candy store.
Tell them all this is not oversight.. it’s using their position to harrass and attack.. and it’s OVER!
Why doesn’t Duckworth & some of the other geniuses go out & talk to the motoring public to see what they think about ethanol? We’re the ones being forced to buy the crap & put up with the problems & potential problems.
So was Cleland.
Sans injury, neither one would have ever been elected to anything.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.