The State of Iowa, dependent on the ethanol industry which uses corn in its blending joined the EPA in a Supreme Court fight against granting more waivers from mandated ethanol production.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller filed an amicus brief stating that the economic health of rural communities depends on the high court keeping strict ethanol blending requirements for oil refiners.
One of those refiners who took the fight all the way to the US Supreme Court is CVR Energy, owner operator of the Wynnewood Refinery in southern Oklahoma. The small refinery contends it should be allowed to continue receiving waivers granted by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Miller contends otherwise and urged the Supreme Court justices against granting more leeway in approval of the waivers from the Renewable Fuel Standard.
Iowa is the nation’s top producer of ethanol, and half its nation-leading corn crop goes to ethanol production.
The brief, joined by attorneys general from seven other states, argued that the waivers could force more ethanol plants to close and “ripple out to devastating effect on rural communities.”