Study: RFS Impact on Refinery Profitability Minimal

Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s energy policy staff analyzed recent claims by opponents of the Renewable Fuels Standard, specifically as it relates to the bankruptcy of Philadelphia Energy Solutions. The company attributed its recent filing in part to the RFS.

The analysis found that the biofuels blending requirement and the cost of the Renewable Identification Number credits both have little to do with the success of refineries and weren’t significant factors in the PES bankruptcy. The Grassley study reached similar conclusions to a number of other recent studies, including multiple studies from the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Energy Policy.

Grassley says he wanted to find out more information after the RFS was blamed for the financial troubles of some refineries. “After reviewing the facts, I am confident that the Renewable Fuels Standard isn’t harming refineries and that other factors are at works,” Grassley says. “The RFS law is working as Congress intended.”

The Grassley staff analysis says that the evidence points to the fact that PES was having financial difficulty due to changes in available feedstocks, as well other questionable management decisions, including the decision to sell off the RINs it had acquired, in hopes of buying them back at a lower cost.

From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.