EPA ethanol step vexes Midwest farmers

DES MOINES, Iowa — Midwest farmers and their Republican elected officials rarely miss a chance to shower President Donald Trump with praise when he takes actions they believe help agriculture, but they’re now parsing their words over the administration’s policies dealing with ethanol.

While they have offered their effusive thanks to Trump for his support for the Environmental Protection Agency to allow year-round sales of E15, a higher blend of ethanol, they have criticized that same agency but not the president over a recent EPA recommendation that could limit growth of the biofuels industry.

Tom Vilsack, a former U.S. agriculture secretary and Iowa governor, said the mixed policies have caused confusion.

“What we need is a clear indication from the Trump administration consistent with the president’s promises that it is in support of the ethanol industry and biofuels industry,” said Vilsack, a Democrat. “You’re either with the industry or you’re not.”

It’s hard to overstate the importance in the Midwest of the ethanol industry, which consumes roughly 40% of the nation’s corn crop. Corn production has nearly doubled in the past 30 years, and without an ever-larger ethanol market farmers fear demand for the grain could plunge.

With that in mind, Trump has repeatedly told farmers he supports the ethanol industry, and in his push to have the EPA allow more sales of the higher ethanol blend, he has kept his promise. But it has been a different story when it comes to another EPA recommendation.

Earlier this month, the EPA released its annual rule for the level of ethanol that must be blended into the nation’s gasoline supply. The 15 billion gallon target for cornbased ethanol disappointed the industry because many expected the EPA to expand the requirement to offset exemptions given to many fuel refineries that have reduced demand by an estimated 2.6 billion gallons since Trump took office.

The EPA also ignored a 2017 order from a federal appeals court to restore 500 million gallons exempted by the EPA from 2016.

For this rule, Republicans chided EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler but not Trump, who appointed the former coal industry lobbyist to head the agency.

Perhaps the most direct criticism of Trump by a Republican has been by U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, who said some farmers think the EPA is breaking the president’s commitments to farmers to uphold the ethanol laws.

“I urge President Trump to compel EPA to reverse course and keep his word to the forgotten Americans who have faithfully stood with him,” Grassley said.