US Environmental Protection Agency nominee Scott Pruitt tried to assure senators Wednesday that he would uphold the biofuel mandate and stick to annual volume increases if confirmed to lead the agency, distancing himself from his previous criticism of the policy as "unworkable."
But Pruitt would not say how he would respond to the campaign by some refiners and importers to move the Renewable Fuel Standard's point of obligation to the wholesale rack.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat-Illinois, delivered the harshest questioning on the topic, reading Pruitt's past statements against the RFS and asking if he was only saying what farm-state senators wanted to hear to be confirmed.
Pruitt said the role of the EPA administrator was to enforce the statute as written and to use waiver authority "judiciously" to deviate from the law's annual volume targets. When Duckworth pressed him for his stance on moving the point of obligation, Pruitt repeated that he would uphold the law as Congress intended.
"That very answer concerns me because you haven't actually said that you're going to stick with it," Duckworth said.
Pruitt is expected to be questioned for hours Wednesday by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
