President Donald Trump accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt last week as head of the Environmental Protection Agency. The Senate has already confirmed Deputy Administrator Andrew Wheeler as the acting administrator. Bob Dineen of the Renewable Fuels Association says the resignation was needed. “For the past year, Scott Pruitt has been waging war on the Renewable Fuels Standard, the biofuels industry, as well as the millions of farmers and rural Americans that helped Donald Trump get elected,” Dineen says. “Mr. Pruitt evidently thought RFS stood for Refinery First Standard.” American Coalition for Ethanol Executive Director Brian Jennings says Pruitt’s fumbling of the ethanol issue is what brought him down. “Time and time again, we saw the White House make very specific promises,” Jennings says, “and time and time again, we saw Pruitt either fail to live up to those promises or do the exact opposite of what the president wanted.”
Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor says Pruitt’s tenure put a definite strain on the relationship between the president and the rural Americans who played a big part in getting him elected to the office. National Corn Growers President Kevin Skunes says they were very frustrated with Pruitt’s actions and will continue pushing the agency to stop granting unjustified RFS waivers.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters News Service
