Oil lobby demands Congress repeal renewable fuel standards regulation
The oil and gas lobby says that the draft proposal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) biofuel regulation is not good enough.
{mosads}In a call with reporters on Thursday, the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) Bob Greco said Congress must repeal the renewable fuel standards mandate.
A leaked copy of the EPA’s proposed fuel standards regulation for 2014 obtained by The Hill shows a shift in favor of the oil and gas industry, leaving many biofuel companies alarmed.
According to the draft, the EPA plans to scale back its mandate for ethanol by roughly 3 billion gallons.
Where the EPA is requiring 13 billion gallons of ethanol be mixed into fuel, the API wants the total to be 12.9 billion gallons, Greco said.
While acknowledging the numbers may not seem drastically different, Greco said, the oil industry needs “wiggle room.” Consumers should have the option to choose ethanol-free gasoline, he added.
And if the EPA doesn’t finalize the biofuel regulation come late November, as it is required to do by law, the petroleum institute will sue the Obama administration.
“But it’s just a draft,” Greco said. “The RFS [renewable fuel standard] must be stopped once and for all. We need the EPA to act immediately while we work with Congress to enact a full repeal.”
Adding more renewable fuel to gasoline and diesel is not safe for engines and puts consumers in a dire situation, Greco said.
The problem is the “blend wall,” Greco explained. Currently, renewable fuel must be blended at 10 percent. Blends that include more than 10 percent of alternative fuels cause problems for vehicles, according to the oil sector.
But biofuel companies say that most cars on the road are approved for even higher blends.
On Tuesday, members of the Fuels America coalition called on the White House to defend the fuel standards mandate.
If the baseline for the amount of renewable fuel used in blends is lowered, biofuel companies said in a letter to President Obama, it would be a major step back for the environment and the economy.
Roughly 25 renewable fuel companies and organizations asked the White House to “rein in this renegade proposal” in the letter.
“This proposal is diametrically opposed to your Climate Action Plan and your commitment to the RFS,” the coalition wrote. “It is hardly an example of leading the way through the type of difficult transition to cleaner sources of energy that our nation should expect as we seek to address climate change.”
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement sent to The Hill that the agency is “only developing a draft proposal.”
“The agency has made no final decision on the proposed renewable fuel standards for 2014,” she added.
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