The Renewable Fuels Association is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to “swiftly and soundly” reject requests for waivers from the Renewable Fuel Standard from the governors of Alabama and Louisiana, warning that such an action would result in higher gas prices and harm to farmers.

RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper says ethanol is already keeping gas prices lower than they might be otherwise. “Any suggestion that ethanol blending compelled by the RFS is somehow raising gas prices is abjectly absurd and demonstrably false,” said Cooper. “Wholesale ethanol prices are $1 per gallon lower than wholesale gasoline prices today, and DOE recently reported that E15 prices are 40 cents per gallon lower, on average, than standard E10 gasoline prices.”

“Refiners have repeatedly shown that if they are not required to blend lower-cost renewable fuels into the gasoline supply, they won’t,” Cooper added. “Far from delivering ‘relief’ at the pump, a waiver of the 2027 RFS requirements would remove a dependable source of lower-cost, lower-carbon fuel from the marketplace and cause higher gas prices. It would also harm struggling corn and soybean farmers in Alabama, Louisiana, and across the country by undermining demand for their crops. EPA should swiftly and soundly reject these waiver requests.”

RFA notes that EPA has received nearly two dozen RFS waiver requests since 2008 from state governors and another 14 requests from oil refining interests each one has been denied after finding that the RFS does not cause “severe harm” to the economy of the requesting states or the refiners themselves.

“The real harm drivers are experiencing at the pump today has nothing to do with the RFS; it has everything to do with high crude oil prices, record high refining margins, a lack of competition in the fuels market, and a failure to truly diversify our energy supply with lower-cost, domestically produced alternative options,” said Cooper.

The governors claim the RFS “imposes a cost on every gallon of gasoline and diesel sold” and that implementation specifically of the 2027 RFS would cause “severe economic harm” to their states, which “depend heavily on agriculture, poultry and livestock.”