WASHINGTON, June 26, 2013 – API is hosting refining executives in Washington, D.C. for a series of meetings today with administration officials and lawmakers on the need to end the nation’s unworkable biofuels mandate, known as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“A growing chorus of concerned groups is urging Congress to repeal the Renewable Fuel Standard before the mandate potentially puts consumers in harm’s way, hurts the economy, and disrupts the nation’s fuel supply,” said API President and CEO Jack Gerard. “The biofuels mandate was originally intended to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, but increasing domestic production of oil is accomplishing that goal.”

Gerard said that the industry is approaching the ethanol blend wall, and that higher amounts of ethanol required to be blended into each gallon of gasoline under the RFS could be 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 administration must immediately reduce these dangerously high ethanol mandates before they harm consumers,” Gerard said. “The long term solution, however, is for Congress to repeal the increasingly unworkable Renewable Fuel Standard.”

By 2015, the RFS mandate could cause severe fuel rationing that would lead to a $770 billion decrease in U.S. GDP that would translate to a $580 billion decrease in take-home pay for American workers, according to a study by NERA economic consulting. 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.