A coalition of industry groups representing the nation's farmers, ethanol producers and fuel retailers implored the EPA in a Tuesday letter to reject CVR Energy's request from late last year to alter the Renewable Identification Number (RIN) trading program under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The letter comes after two refineries owned by CVR Energy--Coffeyville and Wynnewood Refining--requested in December 2023 that the agency initiate a rulemaking that would restrict the obligated parties that can trade RINs, as its current system allows for "an illegal RIN market where RINs trade at hundreds of times their production cost for the benefit of market speculators, criminals, large retail chain owners, and RIN long large vertically integrated refiners."

The groups on the letter--including the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Farmers Union, NATSO, SIGMA and NACS--said that request, among other issues, is "contrary to the RFS's policy objectives, untenable in practice, and legally unmoored from any objective reading of the enabling statute."

"As described above, fundamentally altering the structure of the RIN system would have disastrous impacts on renewable fuel producers, fuel marketers and retailers, farmers, obligated parties, and consumers in the form of higher prices at the pump," the groups said, adding that implementation of the request would also, "significantly undermine the statutory purpose of the RFS."

The group also said that a decision to limit the parties that could trade RINs would effectively result in a "wide gap between bids and offers for RINs."

That would result in far more volatile RIN markets, with highly concentrated market power in the hands of just a few market participants, the group said.

"It would make it impossible to hedge, particularly for small hedgers and non-integrated hedgers," the groups said, adding that, "this would hurt every market participant, including consumers, in the form of higher prices at the pump."

And they took issue with CVR's timing on the request, noting that the refinery breached the 60-day period for requesting a rulemaking under the Clean Air Act.

"Further, Petitioners meet none of the requirements for any of the three possible grounds for seeking review after the 60-day limit," the group said in its letter.


This content was created by Oil Price Information Service, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. OPIS is run independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.


--Reporting by Patrick Newkumet, pnewkumet@opisnet.com; Editing by Jordan Godwin, jgodwin@opisnet.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-05-24 1558ET