A leaked draft of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2014 volume requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) reveal that the agency may decrease the total biofuel mandate but nearly quadruple the amount of cellulosic biofuel that refiners must blend into gasoline. The draft proposal calls for decreasing the total amount of biofuel to 15.21 billion gallons in 2014, down from 16.55 billion gallons this year and slightly above the 15.2 billion gallons in 2012. It would also...
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On October 16, 1973, the Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced a decision to raise the price of oil by 70 percent a barrel, which was followed by an embargo on oil shipped to the United States, a five percent reduction in production from September's levels, and ongoing production reductions in five percent increments until the organization’s economic and political objectives were met. A new analysis from IER takes a look back at the 1973...
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For the United States, 2013 has been the year of energy. Last month, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) announced that crude oil reserves were at their highest levels in more than two decades. Now EIA reports that the U.S. will surpass Russia and Saudi Arabia to become the world’s number one combined producer of oil and natural gas. Recent technological advancements in the U.S. that combine hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have unlocked vast shale resources that were...
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A Washington Times article by Art Fraas and Randall Lutter exposes a systemic flaw in the way EPA attempts to justify its regulations, including the new Tier 3 rules. In March, EPA prosed new regulations on gasoline to reduce the sulfur content of gasoline. In this forum, we have written plenty of critiques of the Tier 3 regulations, showing the flaws in the case for it. However, Fraas and Lutter point out a new problem, which affects not just Tier 3 but EPA’s approach in general: When...
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The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and the American Petroleum Institute (API)  have filed lawsuits with the D.C. Circuit Court challenging EPA’s unrealistic 2013 cellulosic biofuel requirement under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)—requirements that were released nine months late. This year’s cellulosic mandate requires refiners to blend 6 million gallons into the nation’s fuel supply, but cellulosic ethanol remains essentially nonexistent. The actual amount...
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A recent poll conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the American Petroleum Institute (API) finds that the vast majority of Americans are concerned about the negative consequences of the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). In a previous post we walked through some of the major results, including the fact that 77 percent of Americans are concerned that higher ethanol blends will damage their engines. The response from the head of the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), Bob Dinneen, shows his...
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A new poll shows that the American people understand the harmful effects of mandating ever-rising ethanol volumes in gasoline under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Seventy-seven percent of likely voters are concerned about higher ethanol blends in vehicles, according to a Harris Interactive poll released on Oct. 2. Gasoline blended with more than 10 percent ethanol can cause engine damage in the vast majority of vehicles on the road, while most automakers say their warranties will not...
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WASHINGTON — The American Energy Alliance begins today the third phase of a nation-wide $750,000 anti-carbon tax initiative. This phase of the initiative includes a series of online banner advertisements urging Americans to tell their Member of Congress to oppose a carbon tax. The ads are currently running in areas of the country represented by Reps. Bruce Braley (D- Iowa), Cheri Bustos (D- Ill.), Ann Kirkpatrick (D- Ariz.), Patrick Murphy (D- Fla.), Rick Nolan (D- Minn.), Bill Owens...
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Despite federal law requiring refiners to blend increasing amounts of ethanol into gasoline, domestic ethanol production has actually declined over the last year. The U.S. ethanol industry produced 6.40 billion gallons of ethanol through the first half of 2013, down from 6.89 billion gallons over the same period last year, according to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Monthly Energy Review . As the following chart shows, this is the third straight year that domestic ethanol...
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WASHINGTON — Upon report today that Ron Binz has formally withdrawn his name from further consideration to serve as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, AEA President Thomas Pyle released the following statement: "Ron Binz was the wrong nominee at the worst possible time for American consumers. His record of radical advocacy and regulatory bias was too much to overcome, even for Harry Reid's rubber-stamp Senate. His performance during the confirmation process left much...
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