Marathon Petroleum Corporation, one of the largest refining companies in the nation, requested a “hardship waiver” from the Environmental Protection Agency. Marathon wants one of its facilities exempted from its requirements under the Renewable Fuels Standard. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor was not pleased with the news. She says, “Two of the largest corporations in the country are set to create an oil monopoly and they’re still expecting ‘small refiner’ handouts. This is what happens when the EPA regulators are permitted to ignore the president’s commitments to rural communities.” Skor says these waivers have already siphoned away billions of dollars from farm families to enrich some of the world’s largest oil companies, as well as a few well-connected investors like Carl Icahn close to the President. Skor adds, “Those gallons need to be restored and American consumers need immediate, year-round access to E15 as well.” Even Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley weighed in on the topic, saying, “That an oil company making billions of dollars in profits thinks it’s got a shot at receiving a hardship waiver shows how broken the process is” under the current administration. The smallest Marathon refiner producers 93,000 barrels of product a day at its Canton, Ohio, location.
