Ethanol Group Tries to Debunk Oil Industry Claims About Renewable Identification Numbers
Source: By Todd Neeley, DTN/Progressive Farmer • Posted: Wednesday, October 18, 2017
OMAHA (DTN) — The prices of renewable identification numbers, or RINs, have not caused increases in gasoline prices from 2013 to 2017, according to a new Informa Agribusiness Consulting study funded by the Renewable Fuels Association.
In recent years, oil industry groups such as the American Petroleum Institute have claimed rising gasoline prices were a result of compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard — more precisely when it comes to the cost of buying biofuel credits.
Instead, the report released on Monday said prices at the pump have been driven by movements in crude oil prices, changes in the spread between domestic and international crude prices, and seasonal demand.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking heat from biofuels groups, federal lawmakers and others for proposed changes to the RFS. Proposed changes reportedly include attaching RINs to exported biofuel gallons. The biofuels industry has expressed concern the change essentially would flood the market with RINs and drive down prices of the credits. In addition, the EPA recently proposed further reductions to RFS volumes for 2018.
“EPA seems to be on a mission to lower the price of RINs,” RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen said in a statement about the Informa analysis.
“The agency’s proposed 2018 RFS renewable volume obligations, which for the first time lowered the total RFS volumes from the previous year, a subsequent notice of data availability proposing to lower the RFS further to reflect anticipated reductions in imported biodiesel, and rumors of an impending proposal to allow exported biofuel to qualify for the domestic program, all would have the effect of lowering the price of RINs. But this analysis demonstrates that EPA’s efforts will have no impact on consumer gasoline prices.”
Dinneen said the oil industry “needs to stop scapegoating the RFS and ethanol. The RFS is helping to bring the cleanest, lowest-cost and highest-octane fuel to consumers, and no amount of obfuscation can dispute that fact.”