An American Petroleum Institute official urged the US Environmental Protection Agency to protect consumers from the ethanol blend wall—the 10% level in the national gasoline supply beyond that refiners and automakers say engines could be damaged—and to reject efforts by the corn ethanol lobby to reallocate volumes from small refinery exemptions.
“As the agency calculates ethanol volumes for 2019 and biodiesel for 2020 under the Renewable Fuel Standard, consumers need to know that EPA’s increasing biomass-diesel and the overall biofuels volumes is an example of government putting its thumb on the scale, picking winners and losers,” API Downstream Vice-Pres. Frank J. Macchiarola said on Nov. 19 as EPA approached a Nov. 30 deadline for announcing 2019 renewable fuel quotas.
Implementing year after year what he called a broken program “not a forward-looking strategy,” Macchiarola said the RFS was implemented more than a decade ago to expend US renewal fuel use and reduce crude oil imports.
Since then, the US has undergone a transformation from a nation of energy dependence and scarcity to one of energy security and abundance,” he said. “America has significantly increased domestic crude oil production and transitioned from a net importer of refined petroleum products to a net exporter. Bad policies, like the RFS, threaten this progress.”
Macchiarola said without action from Congress, EPA should limit the RFS’s effects and set its final 2019 RFS obligations for ethanol at or below 9.7% of gasoline demand. This level would allow sales of gasoline without ethanol and recognize the vehicle and infrastructure constraints which limit the ability to use gasoline with 15% and 85% ethanol blends, he said.
“EPA should also continue to reject efforts by some to reallocate volumes from small refinery exemptions onto the backs of those who comply with the program,” Macchiarola said. “The reality is market forces, technological innovations and investments by the oil and gas industry have combined with increased domestic crude oil production to render the RFS outdated.”
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