The Iowa Corn Growers Association, Iowa Soybean Association, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association and Iowa Biodiesel Board penned an open letter to Vice President Mike Pence, who is visiting Iowa today, outlining their concerns about renewable fuels.
The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association said its "members were more than a little shocked and frustrated that during his time in Iowa, the nation’s largest producer of ethanol and biodiesel, Vice President Pence will meet with a prominent anti-Renewable Fuels Standard group when so many issues facing renewable fuels remain unresolved."
Pence is scheduled to deliver remarks at the Heritage Action Town Hall, launch the Farmers and Ranchers for Trump coalition at the Iowa State Fairgrounds and attend the Iowa GOP dinner.
In the letter, the agricultural groups take the Trump administration to task for their renewable fuel policies.
"It would not be an overstatement to say that many rural voters are waiting to see what, if anything, the Trump Administration does to fulfill its promises on renewable fuels," the letter reads.
The Trump administration has granted dozens of RFS refinery exemptions, which have angered many renewable fuel proponents.
"As a matter of fact, despite President Trump’s public commitment to the RFS, it has not once been actually enforced at the statutory levels during the four years of his presidency," the letter reads.
The Trump administration has struggled to balance the interests of Big Oil and its farmer base.
"Now, the EPA is considering a plan to double-down on efforts to undermine the RFS with retroactive handouts that would allow multi-billion-dollar oil companies to claim “hardship” exemptions from obligations dating as far back as 2011," the letter reads. "These retroactive handouts are designed to sidestep a January 2020 court ruling curtailing EPA’s abuse of RFS exemption provisions."
The groups call on the Trump administration to reject "gap year" RFS exemption petitions and apply the 10th Circuit decisions to all RFS exemption petitions going forward.