Some oil refiners are simply walking away from their Renewable Fuel obligations after the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to delay this years’ and last years’ biofuel blending requirements. The ethanol industry says no one knows from one day to the next what the national requirement is to blend renewable fuel.
Renewable Fuels Association head Geoff Cooper says; “What we’re seeing on the East Coast is you’ve got a couple of refiners out there who have just said, ‘look, we’re not taking any action to comply with the RFS.”
Cooper talks about the refiners’ stance after the EPA’s latest indefinite delays. “We’re not buying any more RINS. We’re not blending physical volumes of renewable fuels; we’re just throwing our hands up and walking away from renewable fuels because there is no predictability. There’s no certainty with the EPA’s enforcement of the RFS.”
Cooper’s disappointed that President Biden decided to release 50 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is just a three-day national supply, rather than use cheaper ethanol. “We have been arguing for weeks now, as gas prices have been rising at the pump, that the fastest and most efficient way to reduce gas prices for consumers is to allow more ethanol into the blend.”
Cooper argues the White House should rely on the nation’s “strategic biofuels reserve” rather than its petroleum reserve.
