NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Paul Winters
202-737-8803
pwinters@biodiesel.org
WASHINGTON, DC - The National Biodiesel Board
thanks the bipartisan group of 16 Senators who today urged EPA Administrator
Andrew Wheeler to immediately reject the 52 recently filed exemption petitions
for prior compliance years. The letter expresses the Senators' frustration and
alarm that Administrator Wheeler is considering exemptions for refineries that
either did not submit petitions or were not granted waivers in past years but
are now seeking to circumvent a January 2020 decision by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
Kurt
Kovarik, NBB's VP of Federal Affairs, states, "Biodiesel producers and
soybean farmers across the country are already facing unprecedented economic
challenges. A brand-new flood of unlawful small refinery exemptions is
guaranteed to compound the damage from the past several years. The Senators are
exactly right that EPA should immediately reject these petitions as
inconsistent with a federal court decision. We thank Senators Amy Klobuchar and
Joni Ernst for their leadership."
The
letter is signed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Tammy
Duckworth (D-IL), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Roy Blunt (R-MO),
Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Gary Peters (D-MI), Ben Sasse
(R-NE), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), John Thune (R-SD), Richard Durbin (D-IL),
Josh Hawley (R-MO), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and Deb Fischer (R-NE).
A
copy of the letter is available for download.
Made
from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil,
soybean oil and animal fats, biodiesel is a renewable, clean-burning diesel
replacement that can be used in existing diesel engines without modification.
It is the nation's first domestically produced, commercially available advanced
biofuel. NBB is the U.S. trade association representing the entire biodiesel
and renewable diesel value chain, including producers, feedstock suppliers, and
fuel distributors.
###
For more about biodiesel, visit www.biodiesel.org.