Holding Out Hope for Realistic RIN Waivers

Source: By Ag Professional • Posted: Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Over the weekend Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) bragged that EPA Administrator Wheeler would continue to issue Renewable Identification Number (RIN) waivers because Cruz supported his nomination to lead the agency. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told AgriTalk host Chip Flory that Wheeler told him there was no quit pro quo, but still waivers are not out of the question.

“That still doesn’t mean that there might not be some waivers for small refineries,” Grassley said. “The question is, are they going to be legitimate waivers? Because under Pruitt, they were not legitimate and there was an effort to help a lot of refineries that didn’t need help.”

Grassley said during Pruitt’s time leading the EPA RINs certificates were worth 80 cents, but now the price is around 20 cents.

“So the excuse for giving massive numbers of waivers or any wavers at all is a lot less now than they were before, and I hope I can trust Wheeler to be more discriminating in who gets a waiver and who doesn’t get a waiver,” he said. “All I can say is I hope. That’s trusting Wheeler, maybe a year from now, you’ll say I trusted Wheeler too much and I’ll stand guilty of it if I am. But I’ve been led to believe by him that things are not going to be exactly the same as they were under Pruitt.”

 

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