U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) introduced an amendment to the Energy Policy Modernization Act (EPMA) last week that would repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
“The RFS is outdated,” Cassidy said. “It was created in 2005, a time when American energy consumption relied heavily on foreign imports. It was thought that the Renewable Fuel Standard would be good for our environment by decreasing the carbon footprint. But in the last 10 years, our energy landscape has changed dramatically. We now have more domestic oil than almost ever before and the drawbacks of the RFS greatly outweigh its benefits.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), under the RFS, requires that fuel sold in the U.S. contain a minimum amount of renewable fuels. The EPA, however, has consistently failed in meeting Congressionally mandated fuel levels since the inception of the RFS. According to some reports, the RFS has increased prices of corn-based products and meat products that use corn feed in their production.
“[T]he Congressional Budget Office projects that Americans will be forced to pay 13 to 26 cents more per gallon if the RFS is not repealed,” Cassidy said. “For a mom and dad with two teenagers, this would be about $400 a year. But it doesn’t stop at the pump. Over the last 10 years, the price of corn has drastically fluctuated. Corn costs have approximately doubled since the RFS began. And the corn price increasing has increased the cost of food. As much as 7-26 percent is estimated per year and it also raises costs all the way down. For example, chain restaurants are estimated to spend $3.2 billion more for the food they purchase and serve to their customers because of the RFS.
“Unfortunately, there are no environmental benefits, but there is tremendous environmental harm.”
According to such experts as Larry McKinney, executive director of the Harte Research Institute’s Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, the RFS has also been partly responsible for rising amounts of fertilizer runoff in the Gulf of Mexico that has caused a decrease of oxygen in the water, crippling Louisiana’s seafood population.
“[A]n increase in corn production means there is an increase in fertilizer use across the Midwest,” Cassidy said. “That fertilizer runs off into the rivers, goes down into the Mississippi River, hits the Gulf of Mexico, causes algae blooms because of the high nitrogen and phosphorous, that decreases the oxygen in the water, devastating the fish population. If you look at maps of the dead zone, it has continuously increased in size since the RFS was put into law.”
Cassidy also submitted an EPMA amendment with Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) that would allow the secretary of energy the flexibility to sell Strategic Petroleum Reserve quantities of crude oil based on market prices.