WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) today issued a statement following the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent decision to deny small refinery exemptions (SRE) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS):
“Thanks to Donald Trump, farmers across Illinois and throughout the Midwest have been hurting and ethanol plants have been idled while this administration continued to abuse the small refinery exemption program to undermine the bipartisan renewable fuel standard,” Duckworth said. “For years the Trump Administration blatantly misused this process to benefit billion dollar oil companies at the expense of hardworking Americans. The EPA’s recent decision to deny small refinery exemptions isn’t simply transparently political—it’s simply too little, too late.”
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Duckworth has been long-time advocate for the RFS, and for recent policy changes to allow drivers to fuel up with gasoline that is blended with up to 15 percent ethanol (E15) throughout the year. Last year, Duckworth introduced the RFS Integrity Act of 2019 to make applications for small refinery exemptions (SRE) public and create more certainty for rural America, and called on the President to help rural Americans and uphold the intent of the RFS. Earlier this year, Duckworth also called on EPA to reject petitions for SREs under the new RFS for past compliance years.
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