The case for keeping the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) as-is is being made today at an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearing in Arlington, Va. Our friends from the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) have shown up in force, making sure biofuels’ voices are being heard. Bob Dinneen, President and CEO of the RFA, told the EPA that they need to keep in mind why the RFS was set up in the first place.

“The RFS was designed to drive investment in new technologies, to drive innovations, to drive new market opportunities. It was NOT designed to be convenient for the oil companies,” he said, adding prices for Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, the currency on which the RFS relies, will be hurt by EPA’s proposal to lower the amount of ethanol and biodiesel to be blended into the Nation’s fuel supply. “What you’ve done with this proposal is rip this market-forcing mechanism [the RIN] away, returning us to more petroleum, fewer choices at the pump, more costly gasoline.”

Bob also made the case that rising RIN values don’t impact consumer gas prices. “There’s no correlation between rising RIN values and gasoline prices.”

He concluded by encouraging the EPA to listen to those making the case today for preserving the RFS as it was written and intended.

“Listen to those people that are concerned about what this program does for rural America, what this program does for consumers, what this program does for new technologies, and revise this [proposal].”

You can hear Bob’s testimony to the EPA here: Bob Dinneen, CEO RFA comments to EPA hearing