January 26, 2024
Two small refineries owned by CVR Energy Inc. are asking the U.S. EPA to initiate a rulemaking to restructure its renewable identification number (RIN) trading program under the Renewable Fuel Standard to limit the parties who can participate. The refineries claim that the current RIN trading program has led to market manipulation and increased fuel costs.
CVR Energy CEO David Lamp on Dec. 28 sent a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan on behalf of two small refinery subsidiaries of CVR, Coffeyville Resources Refining & Marketing LLC and Wynnewood Refining Co. LLC, requesting the agency begin a rulemaking process.
The letter alleges that the RIN trading program created by EPA unlawfully allows any person to participate—“including entities participating in the market purely for profit.” According to Lamp, the existing RIN trading program has led to “gross market manipulation and caused RIN prices to skyrocket from pennies at the outset of the program, to more than $2.00 in 2022.” Lamp also said high RIN prices caused by the current RIN trading program have inflicted disproportionate economic harm on many small refineries.
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According to Lamp, a reformed RIN program would drive down the cost of RINs by minimizing the potential for market manipulation by non-obligated parties. He also claims that the requested reforms would lower the cost of transportation fuels; mitigate/eliminate the disproportionate economic harm to small and merchant refineries; and minimize lawsuits against EPA.
Within the letter, Lamp also points out that the RFS RIN credit program is different from EPA’s other fuels credit trading programs, including those for ultra-low sulfur gasoline (ULSG) and mobile source air toxics (MSAT) despite the fact that the statutory provisions created the MSAT credit trading program are essentially identical to the RFS statutory provisions.
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