The Environmental Protection Agency’s ethanol mandate is on the short list for repeal this year, leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said Wednesday.
In addition to supporting President Trump’s priorities for pipeline development, Republican leaders on the energy committee want to roll back the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard.
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., chairman of the committee, said the goal is to “put the consumer first and build policy from there.”
Republican Rep. John Shimkus of Illinois, chairman of the committee’s environmental panel, admitted that it will be a “heavy lift” to repeal the fuel mandate, but he said he was confident the changes had a good chance of passing.
He told reporters that “the ultimate goal” is to free “up the market” by “getting rid of the mandate and letting competition fill the void.”
The EPA biofuel mandate has been targeted by the oil and gas industry and several lawmakers who have been seeking to reform or repeal the program. The EPA renewable fuel program requires that refiners blend increasing amounts of ethanol and other biofuels into the nation’s gasoline and diesel supplies.
The oil industry argues that the ever-increasing amounts of ethanol can harm vehicle engines, while the ethanol industry says the oil industry’s claims are exaggerations meant to protect their market share.
A number of bills have been introduced in the House and Senate in the last Congress to roll back or reform the EPA fuel program. The program has come under increasing scrutiny after problems with it increased refiners’ calls for repeal, including biodiesel credit fraud.
Other problems included requirements for refiners to blend advanced cellulosic biofuels even though adequate amounts were not available. The refiners took the EPA to court on the issue and won, forcing the agency to set the requirements at attainable levels. Since then, the oil industry has consistently called on lawmakers to repeal the regulation.
