WASHINGTON, February 26, 2015 – API Downstream Group Director Bob Greco welcomed the bipartisan proposal being introduced in the U.S. Senate, led by Senators Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Diane Feinstein (D-CA), that would roll back portions the nation’s unworkable ethanol mandate, known as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“The nation’s ever increasing ethanol mandate is a crisis in waiting, and API has joined a chorus of concerned groups in calling on congress to repeal it,” Greco said. “We fully support efforts to repeal or comprehensively reform the RFS to protect consumers’ vehicles and our economy. The corn ethanol mandate is outdated as ethanol is already blended into virtually all the gasoline sold nationwide.”

Greco said that the industry is hitting the ethanol blend wall, above which the amount of ethanol required to be blended under the RFS would be unsafe for most vehicles on the road today. Millions of cars could be 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 using higher ethanol blends would void car warranties.

“We continue to believe the misguided program should be repealed,” Greco said. “This proposal addresses the core problem of the ethanol blend wall that could put consumers in harm’s way, hurt the economy, and disrupt the nation’s fuel supply”

The Senate proposal follows a similar bipartisan proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives.

High ethanol mandates could cause severe fuel rationing that would 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,” Greco said. “But we cannot allow a mandate for ethanol that exceeds what is safe for vehicles and our economy and that could put upward pressure on fuel prices.”

API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API’s more than 625 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation’s energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 25 million Americans.