16-07-2013

Refiners backed against E10 blendwall

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) highlight the testimony of Valero Energy Corporation Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer William R. Klesse who testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to examine the effects of oil production, refining and distribution on domestic gas prices. 

In his written testimony presented to the Committee, Klesse, an AFPM member, noted that U.S. refineries are a benefit to the economy and warned that, “any policies making it more difficult to refine in the U.S. are contrary to the public interest.”

The most pressing obstacle for refiners today is the impending E10 blendwall created by an increasingly obsolete Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Anticipation of the blendwall has forced obligated parties, including refiners, to incur unprecedented costs for Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) or credits for biofuels that cannot safely be blended into gasoline. Just this week, the price of RINS soared to a record high of $1.33 for advanced biofuel RINS, $1.32 for corn-based ethanol RINs and $1.33 for biomass-based diesel RINs. 

Representing the third largest corn ethanol producer in the United States, Klesse told members of the Committee that policymakers are right to be concerned with the impacts on consumer gasoline prices caused by the way in which the RFS is currently implemented. As evidence, Klesse said that Valero anticipates cost increases between $500 to $750 million in 2013 because of volatility in the RINs market. 

“The energy landscape in the United States is markedly different today than it was when the RFS was enacted in 2007,” said AFPM President Charles T. Drevna. “Today it is clear that the RFS is not only failing to achieve its environmental goals, but is actively undermining them.

“EPA should immediately waive the 2013 and 2014 biofuel mandates to calm the fuel markets, but the law is unworkable at its core and the only answer is for Congress to repeal the RFS,” Drevna concluded.