A coalition representing farmers, ethanol producers, fuel retailers and fuel distribution companies today urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to reject a recent petition by CVR Energy to alter the Renewable Fuel Standard’s credit trading program. CVR Energy’s petition is a counterproductive proposal that would undermine the RFS and ultimately lead to higher prices for consumers.
CVR Energy has long sought to change the RFS, and in late December 2023 petitioned EPA to prohibit many businesses from possessing and trading Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs). RINS are the credits that EPA uses to ensure obligated parties satisfy their obligations under the RFS.
“The existing RIN market structure, which has been in place since EPA finalized ‘RFS2’ regulations nearly 14 years ago, has worked effectively and efficiently to facilitate compliance with annual renewable volume obligations,” the organizations wrote. “Altering the structure of the RIN system would have disastrous impacts on renewable fuel producers, fuel marketers and retailers, obligated parties, and consumers in the form of higher prices at the pump. It would also significantly undermine the statutory purpose of the RFS.”
The letter was signed by the Renewable Fuels Association; National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS); NATSO, Representing America’s Travel Centers and Truckstops; SIGMA: America’s Leading Fuel Marketers; and the National Farmers Union.
These organizations urged EPA to reject the petition for the following reasons, among others:
- CVR’s request is untimely: “The rules targeted by the petition were issued more than a decade ago.”
- CVR’s “desired structure of the RIN market is contrary to the RFS’s policy objectives, untenable in practice, and legally unmoored from any objective reading of the enabling statute.”
- CVR’s “desired outcome would raise fuel prices by eliminating fuel retailers’ ability to use RINs to lower their costs of goods sold, as they do today.”
