EPA fuel standards ‘unworkable,’ industry says

An oil-and-gas industry official on Friday urged Congress to repeal new renewable fuel standards (RFS) set forth by The Environmental Protection Agency, warning that the regulations could lead to a national gas supply problems and damage to millions of cars. 

In testimony at an EPA hearing in Ann Arbor, American Petroleum Institute (API) Vice President of Regulatory and Economic Policy Kyle Isakower called the RFS mandate “unworkable.”

Under the standard, refiners are required to blend 36 billion gallons of ethanol into traditional transportation fuel by 2022. In order to meet accelerating targets along the way, refiners will need to start producing fuels with higher ethanol concentrations.

That would require greater reliance on E15 –gasoline with 15 percent ethanol, rather than the standard 10–percent blend. On Friday, Isakower repeated the oil-and-gas industry’s admonition against breaking through the so-called “E10 blendwall.”

He pointed to the rising cost of renewable fuel credits (RINs) for corn ethanol as evidence that it is already occurring.

“The increasing price of renewable fuel credits indicates that refiners have breached the E10 blendwall,” he testified.  “This sudden, added cost of producing gasoline and diesel fuel could have profound impacts on the marketplace.”
 
API has commissioned research that suggests E15 fuel is harmful to all but the newest models on the road. And automakers have said they would void warranties on their vehicles, if they are made to run on E15. 

API has placed a repeal of the RFS among the group's top legislative priorities.