RFS needs to be modified to reflect current production, consumption landscape for transportation fuels, rather than having the EPA tweaking the numbers each year trying to comply with a law that has proven itself to be based upon false premises
The Renewable Fuel Standard is Hurting Consumers and U.S. Refineries
Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) are credits generated when biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are blended with gasoline and diesel fuel. RINs are used to show compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard Program (RFS)--a program begun in 2005 and ramped up enormously in 2007--to force increasingly more renewable fuels into the transportation fuel market. They can be procured by purchasing renewable fuel with an attached RIN or by buying RINs on the open market. Companies that buy and blend more renewable fuel than required have RIN surpluses that they can sell at a profit to companies short on RINs.1 But, the system is flawed in that refiners are forced to buy increasingly expensive credits because the levels of renewable fuels required are above the demand for transportation fuels. U.S. refiners are expected to pay record amounts this year for credits to comply with the RFS.