WASHINGTON, June 20, 2013 – API President and CEO Jack Gerard welcomed the bipartisan proposal introduced in the U.S. Senate that would fully repeal the nation’s unworkable biofuels mandate, known as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“The ever increasing biofuels mandate is a looming national crisis,” Gerard said. “Unless we put an immediate end to this outdated, detrimental policy, the mandate could put consumers in harm’s way and disrupt the nation’s fuel supply.”

Gerard said the industry is hitting the ethanol blend wall, meaning the amount of ethanol required to be blended under the RFS is unsafe for most vehicles on the road today. Millions of cars could be severely damaged by fuel blends that contain more than 10 percent ethanol, according to studies by the Coordinating Research Council (here and here), and automakers have said higher ethanol blends would void car warranties.

The mandate could also cause severe fuel rationing, drive up the cost of diesel by 300 percent and the cost of gasoline by 30 percent by 2015, and lead to a $770 billion decrease in U.S. GDP and a $580 billion decrease in take-home pay for American workers, according to a study by NERA economic consulting.

“Ethanol and other renewable fuels have an important role to play in our transportation fuel mix and will continue to be used after Congress repeals the mandate,” Gerard said. “But we cannot allow a mandate for ethanol that exceeds what is safe for automobiles and that could put upward pressure on fuel prices.”

API thanked Senators John Barrasso (R-WY) and Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR) for leading efforts in the Senate to repeal the RFS and thanked co-sponsoring Senators Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), Senator Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Senator John Boozman (R-AR), and Senator Tim Scott (R-SC). A bipartisan proposal to end the RFS was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in April.

API is a national trade association that represents all segments of America’s technology-driven oil and natural gas industry. Its more than 500 members – including large integrated companies, exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms – provide most of the nation’s energy. The industry also supports 9.2 million U.S. jobs and 7.7 percent of the U.S. economy, delivers $85 million a day in revenue to our government, and, since 2000, has invested over $2 trillion in U.S. capital projects to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.