TELL PRESIDENT TRUMP: PLEASE FIX THE RENEWABLE FUEL STANDARD TO BOLSTER DOMESTIC REFINERS AND RESTORE AMERICA’S ENERGY INDEPENDENCE
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is America’s decades-old ethanol mandate. It is not operating as Congress intended and it has been undermining American energy security, driving up gas prices for all Americans, and putting tens of thousands of refining jobs at risk.
In recent years, the RFS has contributed to at least four refinery closures nationwide due to the excessively high and volatile cost of RFS compliance credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs). The RFS forces independent refiners to purchase RINs from their competitors – usually, multi-national oil conglomerates that can afford to install massive biofuel blending facilities. This leaves independent refiners who do not control the blending, vulnerable to wild RIN price fluctuations in the speculative markets, thereby undermining the independent refining industry, and weakening America’s energy security.
The RFS poses a threat to America’s few remaining independent refiners, at a time when U.S. energy demand is increasing. If the RFS is not fixed, American refiners could shut their doors, forcing a greater reliance on foreign refiners in order to fill the gap that American refiners are currently providing – undermining President Trump’s promise to restore American energy dominance.
TO UNLEASH AMERICAN ENERGY, WE NEED TO UNSHACKLE AMERICA’S REFINERS.
It is critical that President Trump and Congress support America’s domestic refiners to ensure they can achieve stronger energy security and secure a more prosperous future for American workers and families.
President Trump and members of Congress can fix and modernize the RFS to prevent further harm to America’s domestic refining capacity by taking the following steps.
→ Congress can cap RIN costs. RINs were initially envisioned as administrative fees, not profit centers for large multi-national oil conglomerates and Wall Street speculators. Flash forward and some independent refiners have reported spending more yearly on RINs than they do on salaries, benefits, maintenance, and utility costs combined.
→ EPA can set lower mandates that align with projected transportation demand instead of setting unachievable mandates, which are untethered from reality and trigger astronomical RIN costs.
AMERICA CANNOT ACHIEVE ENERGY DOMINANCE WITHOUT STRONG DOMESTIC REFINING CAPACITY.
American energy producers should rely on American energy refiners. We need to secure American refiners’ future. To do that, we must change the broken status quo and fix the RFS before its out-of-control compliance costs prompt more refinery closures. It’s time to fix the RFS once and for all.
