Opposing Sides to RFS Debate Postulate Positions

The Biotechnology Industry Organization is asking the EPA to reject a petition for a waiver of 2014 RFS volume obligations. Meanwhile, former anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist launched a campaign to end the RFS.

September 30, 2013

WASHINGTON – In an 11-page letter, the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) wrote to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy last week, asking her to reject the recent petition from the American Petroleum Institute and American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers that calls for a waiver of the 2014 volume obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

BIO emphasized that because petroleum refining companies “enjoy great flexibility in planning and choosing among compliance options under the RFS, they can easily avoid causing the harm to the U.S. economy that the trade organizations foretell,” notes a press release.

Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section, wrote: “First, the petitioners do not meet the requirements to file the joint petition. The joint petition is also premature. The petitioners cannot demonstrate harm when the 2014 renewable volume obligations (RVOs) have not even been formally proposed.”

Erickson continued that the petitioners have blocked investment in infrastructure and created marketing challenges for higher blends of biofuels, and are now requesting the EPA to waive the 2014 RVOs to 9.7% of the domestic fuel supply. “They created the very situation from which they are requesting relief.”

Erickson concludes the letter by saying that EPA “should deny the requests because the projected harm to the U.S. economy would stem not from the 2014 RFS RVOs, “but rather from the ongoing dilatory tactics of the very parties seeking the waivers.”

Meanwhile, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), headed by Grover Norquist, has an online launched a campaign to end the RFS.

In a new website, endtheethanolmandate.com, the ATR is urging the public to write their lawmakers seeking repeal of the RFS, writes EENews.net. The group says that the RFS “is forcing Americans to use a fuel that is unsafe for car engines and costs more than gasoline.”

The letter says that the RFS will:
1. Increase the cost of diesel gasoline by 300% and the cost of gasoline by 30%
2. Average household consumption could decrease by $2,700
3. Reduce American workers' take home pay by $580 billion
4. Leave millions with broken down cars and high repair bills

In a separate blog post, the group calls the RFS a "joke" and says that it has increased greenhouse gas emissions.

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