The federal government just let a multibillion corporation ignore the rules, and they did it in secret.
Reuters reports that the Environmental Protection Agency has exempted Andeavor, one of the nation’s largest and most profitable refining companies, from biofuel regulations traditionally reserved for smaller, at-risk refineries. The exemption will save an estimated $50 million in compliance costs for the corporation that posted net profits of nearly $1.5 billion last year.
The EPA and the Andeavor corporation have stayed mum while an outraged biofuels industry has been howling. The Renewable Fuels Association’s president, Bob Dinneen, went so far as to complain that the exemption “abandons the commitment of President Trump to protect the RFS.”
Hopefully, he is right. If the Andeavor exemption is a sign of things to come, Trump’s EPA could be on the brink of effectively rolling back biofuel standards altogether.
The so-called “hardship waivers” in question are reserved for tiny refiners producing less than 75,000 barrels per day, as Reuters notes. Current RFS standards require refiners to blend ethanol and biodiesel with gasoline at the end of production or skip that step by purchasing RFS credits. If those requirements are too burdensome, tiny refiners can request a waiver from the EPA.
But Andeavor isn’t a tiny refiner. It’s a huge refiner. And by allowing three of that giant’s smaller refiners to receive “hardship waivers,” the EPA has opened the door for similar deals with the likes of Exxon Mobil and Chevron. If that happens, the biofuel industry could go up in flames.
Ethanol mandates have already cost many U.S. jobs. At the beginning of the year, the largest oil refinery on the East Coast declared bankruptcy in large part because of compliance costs. It was just the latest casualty of a program that was designed to reduce dependence on foreign oil, reduce emissions, but failed at both. And now that fracking has turned the U.S. into an oil exporter, it’s simply no longer necessary. If the Andeavor deal is a sign of things to come, Trump could soon end the biofuel boondoggle.
