On the last night of the Trump Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency granted three waivers to oil refiners, exempting them from the obligation to blend corn-based ethanol into fuel.
Leaders in the biofuels industry say the last-minute waivers flout federal law and recent court rulings. Two of the waivers are for ethanol blending requirements in 2019 and one is for 2018.
Reuters is reporting 45 waiver applications are still on file for review by the Biden Administration. The president of the Renewable Fuels Association says the industry is hopeful that Biden’s EPA will clarify that “this nonsense with giving out these small refinery exemptions is done.”