By Scott Richman, RFA Chief Economist Not so long ago, renewable fuel critics claimed that due to purported infrastructure and vehicle constraints, the ethanol content in gasoline simply could not exceed 10.0%. They referred to this supposed limitation as the “blend wall,” and for several years that terminology found its way into virtually every debate about ethanol, the Renewable Fuel …
RFA CEO Remembering the Arab Oil Embargo
Blog post by Geoff Cooper, Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Fifty years ago this week, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) announced an embargo on oil exports to the United States in retaliation for America’s support of Israel in the Yom Kippur War. The embargo took a devastating toll on the U.S. economy, as world oil prices quadrupled …
Columbia Economist Wrong on Ethanol
Dr. Noah Kaufman is an economist who has worked on energy and climate change policy in both the public and private sectors. Under President Biden, he served as a Senior Economist at the Council of Economic Advisers. He also just published a commentary about ethanol earlier this month in Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) website called “A Chance …
RFA CEO Corrects Anti-Ethanol Fact Errors
As the saying goes, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” In a recent Washington Times guest column, anti-ethanol critic Jerry Jung, founder of the group “ReThink Ethanol,” presents complete falsehoods about both ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard as facts in order to try and prove his opinion that ethanol is bad. Renewable Fuels …
RFA’s Annual In & Out List
By Bob Dinneen, Renewable Fuels Association Senior Strategic Advisor It’s that time of year again, when with tongue firmly in cheek, I take a sardonic look at the year past with a hopeful eye on the year ahead. And after another turbulent year, with COVID’s persistence and seemingly intractable political dysfunction, I am pretty sure we are all looking forward …
South Dakota Farmers Union Advocates for E30
With EPA yet to start the rulemaking process for year-round sales of 15% ethanol, South Dakota Farmers Union president Doug Sombke penned an editorial this month advocating approval of blends double that amount, up to 30 percent. “As fuel prices decrease, farmers are seeing corn ethanol markets drop. What to do? Well, let’s hope we don’t see the price at …
RFA CEO Calls Out Big Oil’s E15 Hypocrisy
In an editorial this week, Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) president and CEO Geoff Cooper called out the hypocrisy of oil interests when it comes to allowing year round sales of 15% ethanol, E15. Noting that “hell hath no fury like Big Oil scorned,” Cooper debunks all of the oil industry’s dire warnings in response to President Trump’s recent decision calling …
Pruitt’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Ethanol Tour
Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen channeled author Judith Viorst in an editorial post Friday summarizing EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt’s ethanol “Redemption Tour” last week. Day 1 of his Redemption Tour had Pruitt telling ethanol producers his role was to provide stability to the market only to be told the company he was visiting would be shutting down a brand …
RFA: RFS Not to Blame for Refinery Bankruptcy
Philadelphia Energy Solutions, (PES) the largest oil refinery on the east coast, filed for bankruptcy protection last week, blaming the Renewable Fuel Standard for its financial problems, but Renewable Fuels Association CEO Bob Dinneen disagrees. In an op-ed in The Hill today, Dinneen says PES has no one to blame but itself. “PES operates one of the nation’s oldest refineries, …
Ethanol Really Does Create Jobs
An op-ed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this week gives a real world example of how ethanol is a job creator for the nation. Today, Christopher Wense is an operations technician for the National Corn to Ethanol Research Center at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, but less than three years ago he had been laid off from his job at U.S. …