President Donald Trump recently phoned EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and told him to go ahead and announce the small refiner exemptions (SREs) for the 2018 compliance year, according to a report from Reuters. The news service said Trump told Wheeler he had “had enough” of the situation and gave Wheeler the “green light” to announce EPA was granting 31 SREs for the 2018 compliance year, siding with refiners.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) used strong words in expressing his opinion on the matter during a taping of the Iowa Press program that aired Friday night, saying, “They screwed us when they issued 31 waivers compared to less than 10 waivers during all of the Obama years.” He added, “And we thought that was bad.” Grassley pinned the blame on administration officials rather than Trump himself. “What’s really bad isn’t a waiver,” Grassley said, “it’s that it’s being granted to people that really aren’t hardship.”

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) also complained about the development, saying she’s “very disappointed” in Trump for directing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to grant 31 out of 38 small refinery waivers for the 2018 compliance year. “I think this is very damaging to him. Farmers are angry,” Ernst told reporters after a town hall meeting this weekend in suburban Des Moines.

Trump “has declared his support and appreciation for American farmers and ranchers, frequently calling them ‘great patriots.’ But it has become abundantly clear that he is talking out of both sides of his mouth,” said National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson, who has frequently criticized the Trump administration.

House Ag Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) said the EPA’s waivers offset the benefit of Trump’s move allowing year-round sales of gasoline with 15% ethanol, a long-sought win for the industry. “You can say we have E15, but if you have these waivers, we haven’t penetrated the market like people thought we were going to,” Peterson said. “We’ve got these ethanol plants hanging on by the skin of their teeth.”

Congressional sources do not give very high odds for any legislation altering the waivers.