Ricketts, along with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, leaders of the Governors Biofeuls Coalition, sent a letter to Trump on Monday asking him to support several initiatives to expand the states’ biofuel production.

The governors wrote Trump that their states are home to “over 200 bio refineries that are producing tens of thousands of jobs, sequestering tons of carbon, saving millions of barrels of foreign oil and making enormous financial contributions to our states’ and the nation’s economies.”

“We agree that one of the best ways to meet the nation’s energy needs is to expand renewable energy production and to continue to harvest its economic and environmental benefits.”

The governors called on Trump to direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to:

n Remove barriers to the use of higher ethanol blends.

n Enforce the Renewable Fuel Standard as approved by Congress.

n Update biofuels’ life cycle carbon findings, which are a decade old and do not accurately reflect biofuels’ environmental benefits.

n Correct the motor vehicle emission model’s “mistaken” conclusions about ethanol’s contribution to air pollution.

Last week, U.S. Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb. and U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer introduced legislation to expand the ethanol industry.