(NewsDakota.com/NAFB) – Senator Chuck Grassley Wednesday criticized the Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule setting minimum biofuels blending levels for the next three years below current production capabilities.

The Iowa Republican says, “For an administration obsessed with reducing carbon emissions, this rule makes absolutely no sense.” While the plan makes modest increases to blend levels for certain biodiesel products, the overall biofuels volume remains unchanged, and ethanol volumes were reduced from proposed rule levels. The American Soybean Association also criticized the EPA announcement, as the rule does not accurately reflect the growth expected in the industry and falls far below the industry’s current production.

ASA President Daryl Cates of Illinois says the announcement fails “to account for the progress being made in biofuels investment and growth.” Expanded crush capacity coming online in the next few years translates into about 700 million gallons of renewable diesel, far above EPA’s three-year RVO growth of only about 590 million gallons.