U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) joined 19 of his GOP Senate colleagues to demand that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) not overstep its bounds by updating policy in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
The RFS sets the rule for how much renewable fuel — most often corn-made ethanol — must be mixed into gasoline by oil refiners. The current amount is 15 billion gallons. The EPA is considering changes such as making ethanol exports count toward the annual quota, which essentially would reduce the amount of ethanol used by oil refiners. The idea doesn’t sit well with the nation’s corn growers but is favored by oil refiners who say they’re burdened by the costs of blending ethanol.
Sen. Cassidy aims to protect Louisiana refinery workers and along with the other senators sent a July 26 letter to Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler “to state very clearly our strong opposition to any future resurrection” of the proposed EPA rule setting renewable volume obligations (RVOs) for 2019.
“In recent weeks, media reports indicated that the EPA considered a proposal to retroactively reallocate the RFS compliance obligations from small refineries, which have received hardship relief, to other refineries and importers,” the senators wrote. “Thankfully … in the 2019 RVO, EPA abandoned this ill-considered plan.”
However, the lawmakers said that recent requests from biofuel interests compelled them to remind Wheeler that the EPA would be breaking the law to consider such requests.
“There is little doubt that retroactively reallocating obligations would only compound the problems with the RFS,” according to their letter. “Simply put, a retroactive reallocation of small refinery obligations to other obligated parties is illegal and fundamentally unfair, imposing a financial penalty on refineries that have otherwise been in compliance with the law.”
In addition to Sen. Cassidy, the letter also included the signatures of U.S. Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Steve Daines (R-MT), and Joe Manchin (D-WV), among others.
A retroactive reallocation, the senators wrote, also violates the principles of due process and administrative law. And such action isn’t authorized under the Clean Air Act, they wrote, setting up a situation whereby “radical uncertainty” would be injected into the compliance credits market, resulting in harm to “the U.S. refining base, its workers, and the communities they serve.”
Refineries produce thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs that could be put at risk by rising compliance costs and unreasonable RFS compliance obligations, the members wrote.
Additionally, they said, retroactive reallocation would be inconsistent with sound energy policy, considered a key component to United States national security, according to the senators’ letter.
They urged the EPA to maintain the proposed 2019 RVO policy and not to “deviate from sound policy and the law by trying to fashion any form of retroactive reallocation.”
“Any other direction undermines national security, threatens higher gasoline prices for U.S. consumers, and risks economic harm to fuel providers and the loss of manufacturing jobs,” the senators concluded.