In Defense of the Ethanol Requirement in Gasoline ‘Unprofitable Refineries Whine because Biofuels Take away Market Share,’ Writes Sen. Chuck Grassley

(Wall Street Journal) As an avid reader of the Journal, I feel compelled to respond to the editorial board following last week’s release of renewable volume requirements by the Environmental Protection Agency (“Biden Raises the Ethanol Gas Tax,” Review & Outlook, Dec. 16).

Gasoline needs an additive to help it burn more cleanly and ethanol is the cheapest option. Gasoline used to contain something called MTBE for that purpose, but it may have been causing cancer. The Renewable Fuel Standard law was actually proposed by petroleum producers, who came to me to get them out of that pickle. The credits that some refiners chose to purchase rather than blending biofuels were also their idea to make compliance easier, and the EPA has consistently found that they do not impose significant costs on refiners, as the editorial claims.

What Big Oil really does not like is competition for a shrinking market for liquid fuels from low-cost, cleaner, domestically produced biofuels.

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But go to any gas station that sells both ethanol-blended gasoline and ethanol-free gasoline. The blend with 10% ethanol will be at least 25-40 cents a gallon cheaper than straight gasoline.

The drive to slash emissions is putting petroleum producers in a pickle again, and once again biofuels can get them out of it. That’s why some forward-thinking oil companies have warmed to biofuels, as the editorial board acknowledges, while unprofitable refineries whine because biofuels take away market share.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) New Hartford, Iowa

The doublespeak and hypocrisy from oil refiners reached a fever pitch following last week’s release of long-delayed renewable fuel volume requirements. From one side of their mouth, refiners claim they need President Biden to give them compliance bailouts because they must swallow the costs of complying with renewable fuel standards. From the other, they say they fully pass those compliance costs along to drivers. Which is it?

It can’t be both; and in fact, it is neither.

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Geoff Cooper

Renewable Fuels Association

Washington

Advanced BioFuels USA