Foreign Oil Producers Won’t Save Us

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Posted: Aug 16, 2022 12:01 AM

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During a recent segment on CNN, National Economic Council (NEC) Director Brian Deese correctly cited lost domestic oil refining capacity as a prime driver for high pump prices. However, instead of describing any plan supporting U.S. refiners, Mr. Deese pledged the Biden administration is, “trying to work around the world wherever there is spare refining capacity.”Rather than scouring the globe for spare refining capacity needed to turn oil into gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, the administration should look to American refiners. The Administration should use the one tool in its toolbox to lower prices at the pump, while protecting this country’s remaining refiners and their workers. Specifically, the president needs to lower the federal biofuel mandate.For years, America’s independent refiners, and the workers who run and maintain them, have been calling on the federal government to save refineries from buckling under the out-of-control compliance costs associated with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).While the RFS initially aimed to shore up America’s energy security, over time it has morphed into a regulation that is squeezing domestic energy production, the direct opposite of its original intent.S …