Biden sides with biofuel farmers in small refinery exemption fight

 

Those biofuel exemptions sought by the Wynnewood refinery in Oklahoma, ones that led to a 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling are now political ammunition for Joe Biden in his campaign to unseat President Donald Trump.

The Wynnewood refinery lost its efforts to keep the small refinery exemption of ethanol blending requirements from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard. This week, Biden waded into the fight and charged that President Trump “sold out” farmers to the oil industry.

He said that the 4 billion gallons in waivers granted by the administration over Trump’s three years in office “severely cut ethanol production, costing farmers income and ethanol plant workers their jobs.”

 

“The Renewable Fuel Standard marks our bond with our farmers and our commitment to a thriving rural economy,” Biden said in the statement. “Donald Trump doesn’t respect that connection, and he’s thrown it away to the detriment of generations of producers across the Midwest and around the country — many of whom put their trust in him four years ago.”

Biden’s charge came in a press release and not on the campaign trail. President Trump has accused him of hiding in his basement and campaign through press releases.

The Wynnewood refinery was among a handful of small refineries that sought the exemptions and took their case to the Denver federal appeals court which ruled against them.

Source: POLITICO