Grassley, Klobuchar, 17 Other Senators Urge EPA to Set a High Blending Target Under the Renewable Fuel Standard
WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and 17 other senators today urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set high blending targets under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2017, in keeping with congressional intent and to follow through on agency commitments to get the RFS back on track. The senators noted that the EPA’s last target was lower than it should have been because the agency relied on concerns about distribution infrastructure, which Congress explicitly rejected as a reason to justify lower blending targets.
“A strong RFS makes our country more energy secure, increases competition and consumer choice in our transportation sector, and ultimately strengthens our economy,” the senators wrote to Administrator Gina McCarthy. “We need a strong RFS, and we need more biofuels. We expect that you will get the program ‘back on track,’ and we look forward to seeing a proposed rule released on time that removes the distribution waiver and re-establishes the United States as a leader in the biofuel sector.”
The senators’ letter noted that the EPA’s last rule setting blending targets did not get the program back on track and failed to provide the necessary incentive to drive growth in the development of renewable fuels, particularly cellulosic ethanol.
“Since the proposal was first leaked in the fall of 2013, not a single new cellulosic project has broken ground in the United States and many planned or previously announced projects have been halted. In the meantime, new investments in cellulosic projects continue to emerge in China, Europe, and Brazil. The final rule for 2014, 2015, and 2016 did not change this trend,” the senators wrote.
The EPA’s final rule for 2014, 2015, and 2016 was somewhat higher than the proposed rule because Grassley, Klobuchar, their fellow senators, and farmers and fuel producers at the grass roots weighed in heavily with the EPA. The agency revised the levels higher but they were still lower than what ethanol producers anticipated they could produce.
Joining Grassley and Klobuchar on today’s letter are Sens. John Thune, Richard J. Durbin, Mark Kirk, Al Franken, Joni Ernst, Heidi Heitkamp, Deb Fischer, Martin Heinrich, M. Michael Rounds, Claire McCaskill, Roy Blunt, Debbie Stabenow, John Hoeven, Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Gary Peters and Joe Donnelly.
The text of the letter is available here.
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Grassley Stands Up for Veterans’ Second Amendment Rights
WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley is working to correct a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) practice that interferes with the Second Amendment rights of former military service members. The agency is reporting veterans and dependents who need help managing their VA benefits to the National Instant Criminal Background Check system, a list of individuals who are prohibited from owning and possessing firearms. Roughly 99 percent of all names submitted to the list’s “mental defective” category were reported by the VA even though every federal agency is required to report.
“Our military heroes risked their lives to protect and defend this country and all that we stand for, including our most basic constitutional rights. Now the very agency created to serve them is jeopardizing their Second Amendment rights through an erroneous reading of gun regulations. The VA’s careless approach to our veterans’ constitutional rights is disgraceful,” Grassley said.
Veterans Affairs has the authority to determine whether a veteran is competent to manage his or her insurance benefits, VA benefits and other financial matters for the limited purposes of appointing a fiduciary. However, the agency has been submitting names of individuals appointed a fiduciary to the gun ban list’s mental defective category, which is generally reserved for people who are a danger to themselves or others. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) created the mental defective standard primarily to preclude dangerous individuals from owning or possessing firearms. It appears, however, that the VA does not determine whether a veteran is a danger to self or others before submitting a name to the gun ban list as mental defective. As a result, veterans who are not a danger to themselves or others are nonetheless precluded from owning or possessing a firearm.
Grassley is calling on Senate appropriators to restrict federal funds from being used by the VA to categorize individuals as mental defective without a judicial ruling that they are a danger to themselves or others. This would require the VA to comply with the fundamental purpose for any firearm restriction. Grassley and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Johnny Isakson are also raising the questionable name reporting standard and due process concerns with the VA, and are calling on the agency to explain its rationale for linking financial competency to public safety.
The VA’s regulatory scheme does not require any judicial ruling that the individual meet’s ATF’s standards before being placed on the list, and relies on a relatively low evidentiary standard to revoke a constitutional right. The burden of proof falls to the veterans to argue that they are able to manage their finances in order to prevent their Second Amendment right from being revoked. Generally, when individuals’ constitutional rights are at stake, the burden is on the government to prove that a right should be revoked.
Last year, Grassley sent a similar letter to the Justice Department, which manages the gun ban registry and is responsible for ensuring its accuracy.
Text of Grassley’s letter to Senate Appropriators and the Grassley-Isakson letter to the VA
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