The Renewable Fuel Standards should be abolished immediately

Washington Examiner:

If you want an example of a regulation driving up the cost of doing business, look no further than the Environmental Protection Agency's ethanol mandate, which also creates uncertainty for a segment of the refinery industry.

At issue is the rampant volatility of what are called Renewable Identification Numbers. Most merchant and small refiners have to buy these RINs to comply with the Renewable Fuel Standard.

It's a cost that stems directly from the need to comply with a federal program, not to buy or build new assets or expand the use of a product. RINs add to the cost of running a small or merchant refinery for no other reason than to demonstrate compliance with the government's wishes.

In other words, with no Renewable Fuel Standard, there would be no reason to spend the billions of dollars on RIN credits to meet the standard. In many cases, that money would go into capital development or toward reducing costs for consumers, say many of the refiners arguing for a solution. Yet, RINs are one of the most tangible examples of many that show government red tape is hurting bottom lines for businesses.

It is estimated that the standard could drive up costs for the fuel refining business by a total of $15 billion a year.
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These requirements are an abomination that relied on a premise that there was a scarcity of oil and gas.  The premise is no longer valid and the marketplace should be allowed to determine whether people should be required to put this useless product in their engines.  Consumers are capable of making that decision and should be allowed to do so.  Refiners who want to use ethanol would be free to do so.  Those who do not want to do so would also be free to offer fuel without it.

It is just not intelligent to require businesses to buy something that their customers do not want or need.