Pelican State News

Two U.S. House representatives from Louisiana recently joined 22 other Republican lawmakers to ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to approve renewable fuel standard waiver requests by governors of in oil-producing states.

The nation's fuel refining industry already has waited too long for the agency to act, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) and the other lawmakers said in their May 11 letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler.

"The current, suppressed worldwide demand for motor fuels has placed the refining sector in a precarious economic situation that is only magnified by these federal regulations," the letter said.

U.S. House Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana. | clayhiggins.house.gov

The signatories referred to waiver requests issued last month by governors in Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has since also issued a waiver request to the agency.

In April, Louisiana's Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards joined with Texas, Utah, Oklahoma and Wyoming governors in their own letter to the EPA that referred to the "macroeconomic impacts of COVID-19" that had suppressed international demand.

"They argue that continued implementation of the renewable fuel standard under the current RVO [renewable volume obligations] with an increasingly significant rise in the cost of compliance credits known as RINs [renewable identification numbers] could push the sector - and the nation as a whole - into severe economic stress," the letter continued.

The most recent letter comes as the nation's transportation fuel industry has been hit hard by a sharp fall in demand following the COVID-19 pandemic economic shutdown and cratering gas prices prompted by Russia-Saudi Arabia price war.

The ethanol industry also has been slammed and is struggling to recover with about 140 facilities still idled or running at lower production rates.

The letter's signatories urged the EPA "to act swiftly" in its review of the governors' request and to "grant these waivers expediently."

"This is not time for the agency to sit idly by as refineries face economic duress that can cost the nation hundreds of thousands of jobs and undermine the very energy security that the RFS was established to protect," the letter noted. "We appreciate your attention to this important matter and look forward to working with you and the Trump administration on regulatory reform and future efforts to protect American jobs and economic opportunity."

U.S. House representatives from Texas made up a majority of the 24 signatories to the single-page letter, with 16 of Texas' 23 Republican House members signing off. Those Texas signatories were Charles Eugene "Chip" Roy, Pete Olson, Louie Gohmert Jr., Van Taylor, Ron Wright, Roger Williams, Kevin Brady, Brian Babin, Michael C. Burgess, Michael Cloud, Lance Gooden, Will Hurd, Michael T. McCaul, Dan Crenshaw, Jodey C. Arrington and Randy K. Weber.

Also signing were House members Tom Cole, Markwayne Mullin and Kevin Hern of Oklahoma, John Curtis and Rob Bishop of Utah, and Liz Cheney of Wyoming.