Ethanol Industry Responds to API’s Latest RFS Attack

by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The U.S. ethanol industry is responding to the oil industry’s latest attack on the renewable fuel standard (RFS). On March 20, the American Petroleum Institute released the results of a new study conducted by NERA Economic Consulting that claims the RFS will result in severe economic consequences by 2015. However, the biofuels industry is disputing the study’s findings.

According to information published by the API, the study claims the RFS will result in decreased U.S. GDP, decreased take-home pay for American workers, increases in the costs to manufacture diesel and gasoline, and encourage the export of refined products.

...The Fuels America coalition also released a statement following API’s release, disputing its claims. “As sure as moon waxes and wanes, the American Petroleum Institute buys studies to support their self-interested views,” said the coalition. “Their most recent study predictably attacks their main competitor: renewable fuel. “The oil industry has been complaining about the Renewable Fuel Standard, yet they are the ones who failed to invest in the infrastructure necessary to avoid the compliance mechanism that has them up in arms. Everyone knew this investment would be necessary many years ago, and in typical form, the oil industry is threatening to pass the cost of their own inaction on to consumers. Since oil price is set on the world market, what you pay at the pump relies on what happens to world events that we cannot control, like the Cyprus bailout that is being debated today. If we want lower and more stable prices at the pump, we have to wean our way off of oil, and replace it with inexpensive and homegrown renewable fuel.”

...(American Coalition for Ethanol) “The RFS costs taxpayers nothing and is doing exactly what Congress intended; saving consumers money at the pump and providing them access to new affordable blends such as E15. The RFS is also disrupting the lucrative choke-hold oil companies have on the market. As a result, Big Oil is desperate to repeal the RFS this year. ... The current Big Oil hue and cry isn’t about ethanol supply; it is fear of actual competition." READ MORE and MORE (MSN News) and MORE (DownstreamToday)