WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters) — The head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency said Feb. 1 that the recent bankruptcy of a Pennsylvania oil refiner was evidence the nation’s biofuel policy needs an overhaul.
The comments infuriated biofuels advocates.
Philadelphia Energy Solutions, the largest oil refiner on the East Coast, filed for bankruptcy last month. The company blamed the cost of complying with the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a law requiring refiners to blend corn-based ethanol and other biofuels into their gasoline and diesel.
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EPA chief Scott Pruitt said in an interview with Fox News that the bankruptcy largely stemmed from the RFS, and cited the program’s requirement that refiners earn or purchase biofuel blending credits called RINs to prove to the EPA that they were meeting their obligations.
“We need RIN reform,” Pruitt said, pointing out RIN prices had risen in recent years. “It is something I’ve talked to Congress about.”
He also said the EPA wanted to take a more conservative approach to setting annual biofuel blending volume requirements, an idea he has floated in the past and which has faced stiff resistance from the ethanol lobby.
“We set volume obligations every November,” he said. “Our job should be to take the market and production levels and set volume obligations that are consistent with objective factors, not set inflated or blue-sky types of numbers that create this inflationary pressure on RINs.”
The RFS requires refiners to blend 57 billion litres of ethanol into the nation’s fuel each year.
Pruitt’s comments angered proponents of the biofuel industry.
“Mr. Pruitt’s current stance is … in direct contradiction to President (Donald) Trump’s repeated and consistent promises to support the RFS, American farmers, and American energy security,” said Emily Skor, chief executive officer of biofuel producer Growth Energy.
