JOHNSTON — Farmer leaders of the Iowa Corn Growers Association met with the Director of the National Economic Council Larry Kudlow Tuesday at the White House to discuss the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard. This meeting focused on the importance of upholding the strength of the RFS and reaffirming the deal reached and agreed to by President Trump on Oct. 4 regarding the small refinery exemption issue. Specifically, ICGA asked the President and White House leaders to stand by the Oct. 4 deal because it would base SRE gallon reallocation on a three-year rolling average of previous actual exemptions to achieve the 15-billion-gallon blending requirement of the RFS under the law.
“Our top priority of ICGA is long-term corn grower profitability and an important way to reach that priority is with the success of the RFS. We are not giving up on the fight to uphold the RFS and are tirelessly working to ensure the deal that was agreed to on Oct. 4 is implemented to the benefit of American farmers and consumers,” said Greif. “The current EPA proposal could eliminate the use of more than 580 million gallons of ethanol each year, potentially impacting over 200 million bushels of corn demand. Bottom line, with many market troubles corn farmers faced this year, Iowa’s corn farmers just want the White House to honor the commitments they have made.”
The meeting was attended by ICGA President Jim Greif and Industrial Usage and U.S. Production Committee Chair Kelly Nieuwenhuis.
Additionally, during this meeting, a letter signed by 1,726 ethanol and biodiesel supporters across 41 states was hand delivered to the White House by Greif, Nieuwenhuis and other members of ICGA. The full text of the letter and a list of signers is available at https://tinyurl.com/ICGARFS.