New York/Washington | Reuters — President Donald Trump’s administration has been scrambling to stem the tide of rising anger in Farm Belt states after its decision this month to allow numerous oil refiners to mix less ethanol into their gasoline, sources told Reuters on Tuesday. Trump held a two-hour meeting on Monday with members of […] Read more
White House seen aiming to calm U.S. farmer unrest over biofuels
Ag-state senator says Trump EPA ‘screwed us’ with biofuel waivers
Washington | Reuters — Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley said the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has “screwed” the U.S. ethanol industry and farmers by granting waivers to 31 small petroleum refineries, effectively exempting them from an obligation to use more ethanol in their products. The powerful senator, who represents the largest ethanol-producing state in […] Read more
EU says ready to launch U.S. trade talks, but without agriculture
Brussels | Reuters — The European Union is ready to start talks on a trade agreement with the United States and aims to conclude a deal before year-end, European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said on Monday. The EU approved two areas for negotiation, opposed by France with an abstention from Belgium. But agriculture was not […] Read more
U.S. biofuels industry, advocates see hope in Pruitt’s successor
New York | Reuters — Corn growers and biofuel producers cheered the resignation of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt in the hope that his successor may give them more access and fewer threats to reducing domestic requirements. Pruitt led U.S. President Donald Trump’s aggressive efforts to roll back environmental protections. He drew the […] Read more
Corn-state senators seek Trump meeting as biofuel changes loom
Reuters — A group of senators from U.S. corn states have asked President Donald Trump for a meeting about the nation’s biofuels law, amid expectations the administration will soon act to lower the regulation’s costs to the oil refining industry. The group of Republican senators wrote a letter to Trump on Thursday in which they […] Read more
Trump pushes for more talks after ‘no deal’ on biofuels
Reuters — U.S. President Donald Trump has asked for more talks between representatives of the oil and corn industries after a meeting on Tuesday failed to yield an agreement on how to help refiners cope with the country’s biofuels policy. Trump has called the talks between Big Corn and Big Oil amid rising concern in […] Read more
Key U.S. senator remains wary of China’s Syngenta play
Beijing | Reuters — A powerful U.S. senator said he is concerned that state-owned ChemChina, which is buying Swiss crop protection and seed group Syngenta for $43 billion, could use U.S. sovereign immunity laws to shield itself from claims in U.S. courts. Some Chinese state-owned entities have argued that they have sovereign immunity and thus […] Read more
Agricultural merger mania fuels fears among small seed sellers
Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Justice Department is looking into concerns that global consolidation among major seed and agricultural chemical companies may squeeze supplies of the building blocks for widely used genetically modified seeds, a farm group told Reuters. The department has asked the American Soybean Association for details about how small and independent […] Read more
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