Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, in an April 16 letter, joined three other governors in urging EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler to put a rush on a waiver of the renewable volume obligation (RVO) under the federal renewable fuel standard as authorized by the Clean Air Act.
This waiver could be useful for states like Utah, where refineries are suffering on account of the declines in travel and fuel consumption during efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 starting in March. The governors of Texas, Oklahoma and Wyoming also signed the letter.
Herbert cites the suppressed international demand for refined products, as well as the decision of the International Energy Agency (IEA) to cut the 2020 growth forecast for global oil demand, as well as the organization’s prediction that the first quarterly contraction in more than a decade is coming. Also, the IEA has revised the outlook for global refinery runs.
“As the world economy responds to measures to contain COVID-19, demand for refined products for air transportation, global delivery of goods, and petrochemicals decline- and any rebound of necessity will occur only after containment restores predictable economic growth. In the interim, the U.S. refining sector will face real and substantial difficulty,” the governors wrote in the letter to Wheeler.
The EPA must act on the waiver request, and do so immediately in order to avoid the severe economic harm that the waiver provision is designed to address, Herbert says.
“The current RVO made assumptions regarding the ability of the U.S. refining sector to blend renewable fuels that simply no longer obtain, " the governors wrote. "As our country comes to grips with this national emergency, continuing to implement the current RVO imposes an added obligation that would severely harm the sector, and consequently harm the economy of the states and the nation.”
The governors are asking for a speedy answer in order to protect the energy industry.
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