API reiterates need to reform RFS as EPA readies proposed 2019 quotas

August 17, 2018

Small refiner exemptions that the US Environmental Protection Agency issued to help the refiners meet renewable fuel quotas are only the latest sign that the federal Renewable Fuels Standard program is badly broken and needs to be repealed or dramatically reformed, an American Petroleum Institute official said as the agency sought comments while it prepares to propose 2019 renewable fuel quotas.

“The fact that so many of these exemptions were granted shows the program is broken,” API Downstream and Industry Operations Group Director Frank J. Macchiarola said during an Aug. 16 teleconference. “But some want these obligations reallocated to other parties, which we oppose as an even greater inequity,” he said.

The Renewable Fuels Association has charged that the small refiner waivers resulted in a decline in biofuel demand and cost US corn growers, ethanol producers, and ethanol blenders more than $5 billion. It plans to ask EPA to reallocate the volumes involved in the proposed 2019 quotas when it files comments before the Aug. 17 deadline...

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