Some 150 leaders of American biofuel companies sent a letter to President Trump this week urging him to support and maintain the current Renewable Fuel Standard. They warned the President that any changes to the RFS and the Renewable Identification Number system would negatively impact ethanol and biofuel producers.
“Like hundreds of thousands of others across the country, our jobs and those of our coworkers depend on the RFS, which ensures that American-made biofuels cannot be locked out of the marketplace by monopolies at the fuel pump,” they stated in their letter.
Many of the leaders represented the biofuel states such as Iowa, Indiana, Illinois and Nebraska—corn country.
But at least 8 were from Kansas and one from Texas. None were from Oklahoma.
The lone Texan was Joey Balderaz of Green Plains Renewable Energy in the Panhandle city of Hereford.
Those in Kansas included: Michael Chisam of Kansas Ethanol, LLC in Lyons; Joe Kreutzer of Prairie Horizon Agri-Energy in Phillipsburg; Lee Reeve of Reeve Agri Energy in Garden City; Derek Peine of Western Plains Energy LLC in Oakley; Bill Pracht of East Kansas Agri-Energy in Garnett; and Richard Hanson, Jeff Gilbert and Chuck Fryer, all of Conestoga Energy Partners, LLC in Liberal.
The letter singled out Texas U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz for his “attempt to confuse stakeholders about the RFS, claiming that his attack on Renewable Identification Numbers is not an attack on our jobs.”
“To justify regulatory handouts for an entire sector,” argued the letter, “Senator Cruz has attempted to hijack a conversation about one mismanaged refinery.”
“These aren’t just the workers at our plants. They are the hard-working farmers who grow the grains and cellulosic feedstocks for the U.S. ethanol. They are the construction trades men and women who build biorefineries in areas of the country left behind by other manufacturing sectors,” continued the letter.