Biden is deliberately putting up to 88 small refineries at risk. Most do not have the capacity to refine added biofuels and instead are forced to buy “energy credits.” He throws around that this is a time of war thus the War Powers Act could come into play. Exactly what war was declared? He threatens refineries to produce more, reduce their profit – become patriotic or else.
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), oil refiners must blend billions of gallons of renewable fuels into the nation’s fuel mix, a policy intended to help farmers, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and cut U.S. petroleum imports.
Small refiners can seek waivers to the mandates, or an SRE, if they can prove the mandates would financially harm them.
After reviewing materials including more than a decade of RFS market data, the EPA said it concluded that none of the 36 petitions (as of April 2022) demonstrated hardship caused by compliance with the RFS program. (Reuters)
Biden wonders why refinery capacity is down???
Chet Thompson, CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, said the blending requirement for this year is “contrary to the administration’s claims to be doing everything in their power to provide relief to consumers.”
“Unachievable mandates will needlessly raise fuel production costs and further threaten the viability of U.S. small refineries, both at the expense of consumers,” Thompson said.
Announcement also include denial of refinery exemptions
The EPA, after gathering comments since releasing it proposed blending requirements in December, said Friday it will require refiners to blend 20.77 billion gallons of ethanol, biodiesel and other renewable fuel this year.
The agency also denied roughly 70 exemptions for small refineries,(June 2022) many of which had been granted under former President Donald Trump. (Yahoo)
President Joe Biden wrote letters to seven CEOs of oil companies saying that while Russian President Vladimir Putin is responsible for the spike in oil and gas prices, he’s calling on oil companies to explain why they’ve had a drop in refining capacity at a time when profits increase.
Biden Takes Aim At Oil Companies Over Profits, Refining Reduction
Oh really?
South Jersey refinery says cost-mandated fuel credits threaten its survival
Let’s get rid of the smaller refineries. Transportation Secretary Butt Boy complains about the big companies running things.
The biofuels industry’s RFS struggles span several administrations. Most recently, the Trump administration granted 88 small-refinery exemptions in four years, setting off a legal fight all the way to the Supreme Court. Industry groups have placed their hope in the Biden administration to set a different course on the RFS.”
New Jersey lawmakers waded into a long-running battle by independent oil refiners for reform of a federal mandate that the companies say is costing them millions of dollars and threatening their survival.
Both the NJ Senate and Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging President Joe Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency to allow waivers to the Renewable Fuels Standard that would ease financial pressure on refiners such as Parsippany-based PBF Energy which employs about 225 people at a facility in Paulsboro.
To comply with the standard, PBF and other refiners who are unable to blend biofuels such as ethanol with gasoline and diesel are required instead to buy credits called Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, that have recently surged in price because they are traded on the open market.
Prices for the credits jumped to a record high of almost $2 in June from only 10 cents at the start of 2020, the resolution said. They are now the second-largest expense for refiners like PBF, after crude oil. The document noted that 800 million fewer credits were issued last year than were needed to meet the 2020 standard.
The burden of the credits is worsened, the independent refiners say, by the fact that they buy them from larger competitors who have the technical ability to blend biofuels, and so earn the credits that they can then sell to the smaller companies. That amounts to the smaller companies effectively subsidizing their competitors, they say.
The resolution says the requirement to buy credits is inflicting “serious economic harm” on independent refiners like PBF, and that the EPA has the authority to waive the renewable fuel requirements if it finds that they are hurting the companies.
After Launching Push To End Oil & Gas, Biden Blaming Oil Refineries For Not Doing “Patriotic Duty”
They had this refinery scheme as early as last year. Biden knew this credit business was a problem. Democrat Lawmakers joined in by writing the EPA urging that the refiners not be given any relief:
U.S. Refiners Accumulate $1.6 Billion Shortfall in Biofuel Credits, as Biden Administration Weighs RFS Volume Cuts
“U.S. merchant refiners have amassed up to a $1.6 billion shortfall in the credits they will need to comply with U.S. biofuel laws, according to a Reuters review of corporate disclosures, an apparent bet that the Biden administration could let them off the hook or that credit prices will fall.
“The big liability among companies including PBF Energy Inc, CVR Energy Inc, Par Pacific Holdings and Delta Airlines comes as the administration of President Joe Biden considers granting oil refiners relief from their biofuel mandates amid soaring credit costs and economic turmoil from the coronavirus pandemic that has hurt the fuel industry.
The Bloomberg article pointed out that, “Oil refiners meet the government’s biofuel quotas either through blending renewable fuels themselves, or by purchasing credits from others that have. Prices for some of those credits have hit all-time highs this year on expectations the Biden administration would impose more ambitious quotas and stop exempting refineries from them. Corn and soybean prices have also climbed on expectations of more demand from biofuel makers.
And DTN writer Todd Neeley reported on Wednesday that, “With reports the Biden administration may be considering providing relief to oil refiners from their Renewable Fuel Standard obligations, a group of Democratic lawmakers pushed back in a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan and Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council.
We write with significant concern about recent reports that the Administration is considering several options to exempt oil refiners of their obligations under the Clean Air Act’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). We support your efforts to address climate change, but we are concerned that rolling back the RFS obligation for refiners directly contradicts this work. Following through on the actions reportedly under discussion would directly undermine your commitment to address climate change and restore integrity to the RFS and we urge you to reject them.
Sums up Biden and his energy intentions.
And our Treasury Secretary is all in. NOTE at the end: “Passing Clean Energy Credits is critical…”
I am sure she must be right. She was so right on inflation wasn’t she?
It sure is all hands on deck.
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