ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A new video unveiled by NACS, SIGMA (representing the nation’s fuel marketers) and NATSO (representing the nation’s truckstops and travel plazas) demonstrates how shifting the compliance responsibility under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) away from refiners will raise fuel prices, hurting small retailers and the entire U.S. economy.

The video was developed to dispel the widespread confusion created within the marketplace by a handful of merchant refiners and investors who have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to shift the compliance requirements. Doing so would undercut the program’s efforts to sustain the use of renewable fuels in gasoline and diesel fuel.

“It is imperative that policymakers, fuel marketers and consumers understand how moving the RFS point of obligation will impose significant costs on small fuel marketers and ultimately American consumers while lowering the nation’s overall consumption of renewable fuels,” said David Fialkov, NATSO vice president of government relations. “It is a very complicated issue, however, so this video should clarify how the program really works, and how damaging it would be to change the point of obligation.”

NACS, NATSO, SIGMA and a coalition of more than 35 organizations and companies representing the entire fuel supply chain, from refiners to retailers to renewable fuels groups, vehemently oppose shifting the compliance responsibility under the law. Changing the compliance structure would inject massive disruption into the marketplace and ultimately raise prices at the pump.

The RFS is working as intended by creating stable gas prices and encouraging renewable fuels in the fuel supply. Shifting the compliance obligation would undermine and unnecessarily complicate the program. It would also add significant compliance costs and burdens to freight shippers, which would raise the cost of consumer goods though higher shipping costs.

The video, according to Tim Columbus, general counsel for NACS and SIGMA, “provides a clear representation of how the fuel marketplace works today under the RFS and eliminates the confusion that has been created by those who wish to shift the point of obligation.”