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Trump could hand off RFS spat to Congress
Story Date: 3/22/2018
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Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 3/21/18
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Tuesday the Trump administration may ask Congress to take over mediating the long-running dispute between the ethanol industry and some oil interests over the price of biofuel credits, write Pro Ag's Helena Bottemiller Evich and Pro Energy's Eric Wolff.
"I think the White House is trying to determine whether they need to make a call on a decision or allow Congress to go back and fix it," Perdue told reporters at the National Press Club on Tuesday. "We've had some members of Congress call and say, 'We've been working on this - let us have it.'"
White House playing referee: Trump has convened four meetings to settle the dispute, which has pushed corn-state senators and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) to opposite sides of the debate over whether to lower the cost of biofuel credits, known as Renewable Identification Numbers.
A fix could be found in a bill to overhaul the Renewable Fuel Standard from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.). Details about the bill are scarce but it's rumored to include a national octane standard, and possibly a new kind of RIN for sales of high ethanol blends of gasoline.
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