U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe says it’s no accident that gasoline prices are lower than they were a year ago. And he credits the leadership of President Trump saying under the President, the U.S. has become the largest producer of oil and natural gas.
He cites the President for rolling back countless unnecessary regulations , approving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines and streamlining the permitting of liquefied natural gas terminals.
But in a statement this week, the Republican Senator who chairs the Senate Energy and Public Works Committee warned the drop in gasoline prices is at risk “because of the regulatory burdens of the renewable fuel standard.”
“The RFS is an outdated program, created in 2005, in a misguided attempt to subsidize the American biofuel industry. It is an example of how good intentions can go awry with heavy handed regulation” charged the Senator.
He claimed it forces local refineries such as HollyFrontier in Tulsa and CVR Energy in Wynnewood to comply with biofuel blending requirements that cost jobs and investment.
“Because of this hardship, the very law that created the RFS also requires the Environmental Protection Agency to provide small refinery exemptions from the ethanol mandate for small refineries that are disproportionally harmed by the blending requirements,” said Inhofe.
The Senator, claiming there is no longer a need for the RFS went after what he called the “Big Corn lobby” saying it is never satisfied.
“And they’re begging President Trump to deny all pending SRE petitions. The negative impact of that decision would be clear: More refineries may be forced to shutdown, forcing hardworking Americans out of a job and spiking prices Americans pay at the pump.”
The Senator’s comments came after he and others sent a letter to President Trump asking him to grant relief under the RFS as the law requires.