Washington, D.C. – Yesterday, Senator Joe Donnelly joined Senators Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Maria Cantwell of Washington, and Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken of Minnesota at a press conference to voice his support for restoring the lapsed Biodiesel Tax Credit and to call on the Obama Administration to revise its proposal for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in 2014. In his remarks, Donnelly praised the biofuel industry for continuing to help move America closer to energy independence, all the while creating thousands of Hoosier jobs.

Watch Senator Donnelly’s full remarks here

“This should be an easy decision,” said Donnelly. “When you look at the benefits, you look at the environmental benefits, the jobs created—in Indiana, you have 5 biodiesel operations, 13 ethanol operations, all jobs that have been created because of this opportunity…This is something that we dreamed of years ago, and it’s a reality, and it makes no sense that the very thing we worked so hard to accomplish, we would then make it more difficult to move forward with.”

“And on the renewable fuel standard, like Al [Franken] and Amy [Klobuchar], I was able to have Gina McCarthy come out. And she sat with a group of Indiana farmers…they said ‘nobody thought we could do it, and we have.’ And so to discourage the very thing we’ve been encouraging all along—that these plants were built on—seems to be very, very shortsighted. And so the RFS, which has been an incredible success, has moved our nation to energy independence, and we need to make sure that we stand up and fight for it.”

Last year, Senator Donnelly sent a bipartisan letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy expressing his concerns regarding the EPA’s proposal for the 2014 Renewable Volume Obligations under the RFS. Donnelly then hosted Administrator McCarthy in Indiana to listen to the concerns of Hoosier farmers over the new standard. 

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Press Contact

Contact: Donnelly_Press@Donnelly.Senate.Gov