Lankford Introduces Bill to Repeal RFS Ethanol Mandates

(Representative James Lankford (R-Okla.)) Provides common-sense solution for American-made energy
Representative James Lankford (R-Okla.), Chairman of the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care and Entitlements, today introduced H.R. 4849, the Phantom Fuels Elimination Act. The legislation would repeal the corn ethanol mandate and require the remaining mandates within the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) of the Clean Air Act to be fulfilled with domestic production.
“It is increasingly clear the RFS is not meeting its original purpose of achieving American energy independence, and its impossible mandates are needlessly overburdening American consumers, energy refiners and producers,” said Lankford.
“I introduced this legislation to provide a common-sense solution to the unworkable RFS. American families pay more at the pump than they should because of a foolish federal ethanol mandate. The Phantom Fuels Elimination Act would allow the sale of corn ethanol, but it would eliminate the mandate. It is irrational to require Americans to purchase ethanol when the final price is higher for the consumer and domestic supplies of energy continue to rise."
Created in 2005, the RFS established the first renewable fuel volume mandate in the United States. Currently, the RFS requires American energy producers to refine 36 billion gallons of biofuels. Lankford’s RFS elimination bill repeals the current corn ethanol mandate in the RFS and limits the biomass-based diesel, advanced biofuel, and cellulosic biofuel mandates to domestic production only. In the event American companies do not produce alternative fuels in an amount sufficient to meet the mandate in any year, which has been the case in years past, the EPA would be required to issue a waiver and reduce the overall mandate for that year.
“The ethanol mandate’s ‘blend wall,’ caused by lower-than-expected American energy demand despite ever-increasing ethanol additive mandates, was debated in my Oversight Subcommittee hearing last year,” continued Lankford. “We found that fuel blenders scrambled to comply with the RFS regulation. Since the regulation required the sale of product that Americans did not want or that did not exist, it was literally a phantom fuel. After hearing from numerous American energy producers, refiners, automobile manufacturers and even turkey growers concerned with the corn market, it became clear that the EPA would delay appropriate action unless legislation required them to do so.”
The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007 required energy refiners to increase the amount of ethanol already required to blend into gasoline. The EISA outlined gradual increases in the additive mandate in the near future, which was based on the assumption Americans would consume more gasoline in the future but they have not.
“My bill will hopefully solve yet another problem caused by this Administration’s blind insistence that ‘Washington knows best.’ If the demand for ethanol-based gasoline is there, the American consumer will demand it. However, our government can best help us reach North American energy independence by allowing the American energy industry to continue to do its job without unworkable regulations like the RFS. I look forward to full House consideration of my bill as soon as possible, so we can provide a solution to the RFS issue as quickly as possible,” concluded Lankford.
For a copy of the Phantom Fuels Elimination Act, please click here. READ MORE