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Iowa ethanol leader: ‘No justification’ for more RFS exemptions

The head of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA) says if the EPA approves more RFS exemptions for small oil refiners, it will “irreversibly undermine” the Renewable Fuels Standard.

IRFA executive director Monte Shaw says with the price of Renewable Identification Numbers—RINs—as low as eight cents, there is no justification for EPA to grant any small refinery exemptions (SREs) for 2018.

“If eight cent RINs—even below the ten cent price that Ted Cruz liked—is not the time to deny them (SREs), then when is,” Shaw says. “That’s what I think the EPA has to understand—if they’re going to grant them now, they’re basically saying we’re going to grant these forever and the RFS will never again drive demand.

“That would be a pretty hard pill to swallow in rural America, which for the past four or five years has been struggling.”

Mike Jerke is the CEO of the Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy ethanol plant at Council Bluffs, Iowa. He says many plants have been operating in the red for some time.

“So to have a situation where we have an agency, by the stroke of a pen, changing regulations so that refineries that are required to blend don’t have to blend, that just exasperates the situation,” Jerke says.

Thirty-nine small refinery exemption requests for 2018 have been submitted to EPA. The agency is expected to announce a decision of those requests soon.