Republican and Democratic Senators from biofuel states have introduced legislation to fight the EPA in its plan to retroactively lower 2020 biofuel blending targets.
They call it the Defend the Blend Act and it was introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and cosponsored by Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), would prohibit lowering the minimum applicable volume of biofuels once levels are finalized for any given year.
Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa), Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Angie Craig (D-Minn.), and Ron Kind (D-Wis.) introduced companion legislation ( H.R. 6071 ) in the House in November.
Blending proposals were released last week by the Environmental Protection Agency. They retroactively lowered targets for 2020 in order to ease the task for refineries already hit hard by the pandemic but at the same time raised the targets for 2022.
The Senators contend the 2020 EPA target hurt ethanol backers who also believe it would hurt farmers who also had to handle decreased demand.
