(AFPM) This is exactly the wrong time to make gasoline and diesel production more expensive, but that’s what President Biden’s latest proposals for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) would do.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is asking for input on the new RFS proposal, and we have until February 4 to submit our thoughts. Here’s a two-point summary:
- For 2022, President Biden and the EPA want to enforce the biggest-ever RFS mandate—even though fuel demand has yet to fully recover to pre-pandemic levels. This has potential to sharply increase RFS costs on refiners and consumers.
- In a measure of common sense, the President and EPA are thinking about revising the 2020 RFS standards and setting the long-overdue 2021 mandates in line with actual fuel consumption in those years. This is a good step to account for how COVID affected fuel demand.
The bottom line is this: when RFS mandates grow, so does the cost of RFS compliance. When it becomes too expensive to produce RFS-obligated gasoline and diesel fuel in the United States, refineries might have to choose between paying their RFS bills, keeping people employed or cutting fuel production. American drivers, refinery workers and regional energy security are put at risk by oversized RFS proposals like the one President Biden issued for 2022.
Submit your comment on the RFS proposal.
