Frustrations Over Biofuel Discussions Continue

President Donald Trump says progress is being made on a biofuel reform package. Reuters reports he met with farm-state senators on Thursday, and he’s supposed to meet with their oil-producing state counterparts today. The current proposal would increase biofuel blending volumes by 5 percent. The White House has declined comment on any new details, but U.S. biofuel credits went up 15 percent Thursday on news of the discussion.

House Ag Chairman Collin Peterson says he’s unsatisfied with what the administration has offered so far to compensate the biofuel industry for losses related to small refinery waivers. He told reporters Thursday he’ll continue to push for changes until the 15 billion gallons committed under the renewable fuel standard are reached. He also expressed frustration with what he describes as a lack of justification for the waivers, pointing out it undermines the president’s commitment to farmers and leaves biofuels and agriculture worse off, saying,

We’d like to see them reallocate this stuff so we can get back up to 15 billion, that’s what we’d like to see, so what I saw on paper I was not impressed with, I did not think it was adequate. They were meeting yesterday, I don’t know what they decided, we’ll find out I guess.

Peterson says waivers have reduced biofuel gallons by 1.6 Billion.