By STAN MADDUX

Indiana Correspondent

FRANCESVILLE, Ind. — More farmers are voicing dissatisfaction with President Trump after his EPA’s latest pinch on the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on top of his ongoing trade war with China.

Darrel Erb, who raises corn and soybeans on 1,600 acres in northern Indiana at Francesville, expressed anger toward the President and USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue, saying agriculture was hurting already before being dealt a “double whammy” from the White House.

“To listen to Sonny Perdue telling people farmers are happy with Trump, that kind of pisses you off. You know what I mean,” he said.

Trump, often proclaiming love for farmers, directed the U.S. EPA this month to grant waivers of the RFS to 31 fuel refineries, on top of the 54 waivers granted since 2016. The latest waivers will mean 1.4 billion gallons of ethanol taken out of production nationwide, on top of the 2.6 billion lost to the previous RFS waivers, according to the Indiana Corn Growers Assoc. (ICGA).

As a result, agricultural groups are calling for a meeting with Trump and other members of his administration to discuss the damaging impact on grain producers, already hurting from losing exports to China and likely yield losses from an extremely wet spring.

The impact of waivers has already been sent in writing to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler from Iowa by Gov. Kim Reynolds and Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. And there is a bipartisan call from several Iowa legislators for the EPA waiver process to be investigated.

“Ethanol consumption fell for the first time in 20 years, commodity markets are depressed, and many biofuel plants, including several in Iowa, have already slowed or halted,” Reynolds said.

POET Energy, for example, recently announced it was halting production at its biofuel plant in Cloverdale, Ind., where 50 employees will be laid off. Jeff Broin, POET chair and CEO, said billions of dollars were invested by the renewable fuel industry on the belief EPA would stand behind the intent of the RFS.

“Unfortunately, the oil industry is manipulating EPA and is now using the RFS to destroy demand for biofuel, reducing the price of commodities and gutting rural economics in the process,” he said.

Under the federal Clean Air Act, small refineries producing fewer than 75,000 barrels per day are eligible to apply for a waiver if complying with RFS would place their facility under economic hardship. It’s alleged some waivers were granted to refineries owned by giants in the oil and gas industry, including Exxon and Chevron.

Erb said his first-year loss in crop revenue from the ongoing trade war with China was $75,000. He was hoping projected yield reductions from the wet spring would help him recover his losses, but waivers lower demand for grain and negate any positive impact the wet spring might have on prices.

“It just gets worse and worse and worse all of the time,” said Erb, who grew up on the farm he purchased from his father in 1984.

According to grain industry insiders, the latest waivers also offset gains from a previous decision by the Trump administration to allow year-round sales of E15, a blend of 15 percent ethanol with gasoline. Ten percent ethanol has been the dominant blend in the market.

Trump is also being asked by the American Soybean Assoc. (ASA) to uphold his commitments to support the RFS. Soybeans are a key ingredient in biodiesel, which could be hurt the most by the RFS waivers. ASA is urging Congress to get the biodiesel tax credit extension completed.

“We may be reeling, but we are not KO’d. Congress can enact an extension of the biodiesel tax credit and the administration can still get the RFS back on stable footing,” said Rob Shaffer, ASA director and chair of ASA’s Biodiesel and Infrastructure Committee.

The ICGA challenged Trump to live up to his promises of helping farmers and rural communities. Indiana is the fifth-largest U.S producer of ethanol and nearly half of the state’s corn crop goes toward ethanol production, the group said.

The EPA, however, is disavowing any negative effect of waivers on the biofuel industry. Reuters reported on August 20 the agency dismissed the industry’s argument that waivers granted to small oil refineries were destroying demand and that were damaging for the ethanol producers.

“There is zero evidence that EPA’s congressionally mandated small refinery exemption program ... has had any negative impact on domestic corn ethanol producers,” a spokesman for the EPA said in emailed comments to Reuters.