Wyden asks EPA for information about RIN price fluctuations

US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ronald L. Wyden (D-Ore.) asked the Environmental Protection Agency for data to explain unprecedented volatility in the market for Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN). RINs are designed to help refiners meet alternative fuel volume requirements under the federal Renewable Fuels Standard.
March 22, 2013
2 min read

US Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Ronald L. Wyden (D-Ore.) asked the Environmental Protection Agency for data to explain unprecedented volatility in the market for Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN). RINs are designed to help refiners meet alternative fuel volume requirements under the federal Renewable Fuels Standard.

“Given that ethanol is an increasingly important factor in the cost and supply of motor fuel in the US, it is critical that the committee have a better understanding of the causes and effects of RIN market volatility and developments,” Wyden said in a Mar. 22 letter to EPA Acting Administrator Robert Perciasepe.

Wyden asked EPA to provide data concerning RINs market volatility and irregular trading, and deficits and surpluses in RINs carried over from the previous year, as well as US production and consumption of biofuels as part of preparation for a hearing on gasoline prices later this spring.

Refiners are required to blend 13.8 billion gal of ethanol into the US gasoline supply this year, Wyden said. Prices for conventional RINs rose from 7¢/gal at the beginning of January to $1.10/gal during the first week of March, he noted.

His request came 2 days after the American Petroleum Institute and Republican Sens. David Vitter (La.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alas.) separately asked EPA to address RIN costs, which have jumped 1,400% since the beginning of 2012 (OGJ Online, Mar. 21, 2013).

Contact Nick Snow at [email protected].

About the Author

Nick Snow

NICK SNOW covered oil and gas in Washington for more than 30 years. He worked in several capacities for The Oil Daily and was founding editor of Petroleum Finance Week before joining OGJ as its Washington correspondent in September 2005 and becoming its full-time Washington editor in October 2007. He retired from OGJ in January 2020. 

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