US EPA Set to Deny Refiner Requests to Change Biofuels Program

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Thursday it plans to deny several petitions from oil groups to start the process towards making a change to the country's biofuels program.

EPA said it did not believe it should initiate a full rulemaking, as requested by multiple firms, to change the so-called "point of obligation" of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The RFS is a 2005 policy that establishes annual targets for the volume of biofuels that need to be blended with gasoline and diesel in the United States.

Valero Energy Corp and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers have pressed EPA to push the so-called "point of obligation" downstream, reducing the onus on the merchant refiners that have little to no capacity to blend biofuels at their operations.

(Reporting by Chris Prentice)