• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / News / EPA consideration of oil refinery waivers key topic in Ernst-Greenfield race

EPA consideration of oil refinery waivers key topic in Ernst-Greenfield race

June 29, 2020 By O. Kay Henderson

Republican Senator Joni Ernst and Democratic challenger Theresa Greenfield are both criticizing the EPA administrator’s handling of federal ethanol policy — and each questions the other’s commitment to promoting the corn-based fuel.

Greenfield said Ernst never should have voted to confirm a lobbyist from the fossil fuels industry to lead the agency. “I am calling for the EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler to step down immediately,” Greenfield said, “and I am calling for Senator Ernst to ask him to do the same and to put Iowa first.”

Ernst said she threatened to call for Wheeler’s resignation last October if he didn’t follow through on the president’s promises to the ethanol industry — and Ernst ridiculed Greenfield for getting Wheeler’s name wrong in a press conference.

“Whatever she was calling him, a couple of different names…if you really are interested, you know, make sure that you’ve been engaging,” Ernst said, “and it’s only recently that she has started to engage in the RFS.”

Ernst said she’s been working on ethanol policy for at least a decade, starting when she was a member of the state senate.

“I’m glad that she’s finally paying attention to the RFS, good for her, but a little bit late,” Ernst said.

Both Ernst and Greenfield are critical of the Trump Administration’s consideration of waivers that would let oil refineries escape the requirement to blend ethanol into gasoline. Ernst has recently blocked a senate vote on a man nominated to be the deputy administrator of the EPA — as a way of protesting the consideration of those waivers.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: News, Politics / Govt Tagged With: Democratic Party, Ethanol, Joni Ernst, Republican Party

Featured Stories

Congresswoman Axne favors Biden pandemic relief plan, Hinson not ruling out a ‘yes’

DOT plow crews struggling against blizzard conditions

Death penalty proposed for specific child murder cases

Iowa delegation breaks along party lines on Trump impeachment vote

Two northeast Iowa men admit to illegally harvesting ginseng

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

UNI adds two nonconference games to basketball schedule

Iowa State-Kansas postponed

Iowa-Michigan State postponed

Fire damage to Riverfront Stadium electrical system will cost Waterloo thousands

Iowa State at Kansas State postponed

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC