Politics News 'Your EPA went too far': Farmers hit hard by Trump EPA's new ethanol rules are fuming

President Donald Trump won 93 out of Iowa’s 99 counties in the 2016 presidential race — the most for a GOP nominee since 1980 — thanks in no small part to local farmers. But now, farmers here are questioning if they'll vote for him again. "Farmer tensions are running pretty tight out here right now,” Duane Aistrope, a corn and soybean farmer in Randolph, Iowa — roughly two hours southwest of Des Moines — told NBC News. "We got him elected out here in the Midwest — the farmers did." The Midwest agricultural industry is up in arms not only due to the president's trade war, but because the Environmental Protection Agency recently exempted 31 small oil refineries from rules that would require them to blend ethanol, which comes from corn, into their fuel supply. Those exemptions are now forcing farmers to grapple with lost revenue from wasted crops. Aistrope is one Midwestern corn farmer who, through the last two seasons, has battled depressed corn prices. Many farmers like him have stuck with Trump during his protracted trade war with China, arguing that the U.S. does need to fix its trade policy with Beijing. But now farmers such as Aistrope say these waivers are a step too far. "Hopefully he’ll take care of us and do things right: Just uphold the laws for the ethanol industry that Congress put into place," Aistrope said. The Renewable Fuel Standard is a law that requires the U.S. fuel supply to use a certain amount of corn ethanol in the country’s gasoline market to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduce the country’s reliance on imported oil, according to the EPA. Corn makes up roughly one-third of crop produced in the U.S. and over the past several decades its production has steadily risen, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Forty percent of total corn use in the U.S. is tied to growing ethanol production, according to the agency. And Iowa is among the top corn-producing states. However, since Trump took office, his EPA has issued 85 exemptions to oil refineries to stop blending ethanol in their fuel — a staggering increase from previous administrations. The waivers have extended to giant oil corporations such as Chevron and Exxon. As a result, more than one dozen ethanol plants have shut down or halted production across the country this year...MORE