EPA Administrator Gets an Earful from Corn Farmers

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been on a tour of farm country this week, meeting with corn farmers and ethanol producers in Kansas and South Dakota already and next to Nebraska.

At the East Kansas Agri-Energy ethanol plant in Garnett, Kansas, Kansas Corn Growers Association President Ken McCauley says they pressed Pruitt on EPA’s granting of small refinery exemptions which Pruitt claims he must do for refineries who claim financial hardship.

Farmers and ethanol producers in South Dakota held a good old fashioned tractor rally in Sioux Falls as Administrator Pruitt met with farmers in Reliance about 200 miles west. Farmers like South Dakota Corn Growers president Troy Knecht spoke at the rally to send a message to Administrator Pruitt to stop the waivers and make good on the president’s promise to allow E15 use year round

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings says they just want Administrator Pruitt to do his job.

Click on the audio files below for interviews with McCauley and Jennings and Knecht’s remarks at the rally:

Interview with Ken McCauley, KS Corn president

Remarks by Troy Knecht, SD Corn president

Interview with American Coalition for Ethanol CEO Brian Jennings