AEA Responds to EPA Rejection of Renewable Fuel Standards Waiver

WASHINGTON D.C. — The American Energy Alliance President Thomas Pyle responded today to the decision of the Environmental Protection Agency to deny a waiver request by seven state governors seeking relief from the federal Renewable Fuel Standard.

“President Obama famously promised Vladimir Putin more flexibility after his re-election, but he’s offered no such flexibility to governors seeking relief from rising consumer prices in their states. Congress specifically authorized the EPA to grant RFS waivers when adverse circumstances made compliance difficult or impossible.The Obama EPA shows little concern for the hardships being faced by American consumers, and the denial of the governors’ request signals four more years of regulatory burdens, bureaucratic indifference, and politicized rule-making from this administration. As long as government mandates trump the free market, Americans will continue to suffer. Congress should repeal the mandate altogether and begin restoring sanity to our nation’s energy policy.

Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasted the smallest corn crop in six years, thanks to this summer’s severe drought, the EPA is unfazed in its support of a policy that diverts nearly 40 percent of the nation’s corn crop into fuel. In addition to artificially inflating food and feed prices, RFS will continue to cost consumers at the gas pump. This is because ethanol has a lower energy content than traditional gasoline, requiring more frequent, $60+ fill-ups at the gas station.

Perhaps the greatest irony is that the RFS was borne from the need to reduce imported oil and on the assumption that we would soon deplete our domestic supply. However, just this week the International Energy Agency forecasted that the U.S. is on the brink of becoming the world’s largest oil producer by 2020. We are within reach of energy self-sufficiency, but fundamentally flawed policies like the RFS will get us no closer to realizing it.”

###