The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) sent a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler this week to correct “several misstatements in testimony offered recently to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology” regarding the real impacts of small refinery exemptions (SREs).
Specifically, RFA questioned the accuracy of Administrator Wheeler’s statements in answer to questioning from Rep. Brian Babin (R-TX) that ethanol production and consumption is on the rise, when data from the Department of Energy and EPA itself indicate otherwise. Listen to the exchange:
EPA's Wheeler and Rep. Babin on ethanol and SREs
Wheeler told Rep. Babin, “Ethanol demand has not been impacted by the small refinery program and in fact we’ve seen an uptick in ethanol over the last two years.” RFA says, “In reality, U.S. ethanol consumption has shown a downturn—not an uptick—in the last two years. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. ethanol consumption was 14.382 billion gallonsin 2018—down from 14.485 billion gallons in 2017.”