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MOSCOW (MRC) -- The chief legal officers of seven
states — Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Utah, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Wyoming -
added their names and states to the list of those urging EPA to issue a waiver
of 2020 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance burdens, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
As
the Attorneys General (AGs) note, EPA is empowered with authority under the
Clean Air Act to waive all or part of RFS annual compliance burdens when the
fulfillment of such obligations would cause severe economic harm to a state,
region or the country as a whole. The AGs write, “Congress intended the
renewable fuels program to be transformative, not destructive. If the program
threatens the very economies it intends to modify, the Administrator is
empowered to take necessary steps to protect the regulated markets by waiving
the program’s requirements."
This year, the AGs note EPA and other
agencies have exercised authority to provide industries relief from regulatory
policies in order to “maximize and sustain capacity” and help keep the U.S.
economy afloat. It is only fitting that EPA use the tools provided by Congress
to prevent states and regions from facing any more severe economic harm because
of surging compliance costs in the RFS regulatory market.
The
refining industry is critical to the economy and energy security of the United
States. The sector’s health and capacity — which is an economic anchor for
entire states and regions — is threatened by growing RFS mandates and compliance
costs that have hit two-year highs in the midst of an historic economic
downturn.
The time for EPA to invoke its general waiver authority
and reduce RFS regulatory costs is now.
As MRC informed earlier,
Russia's output of chemical products rose by 4.4% year on year in May 2020 .
Thus, production of basic chemicals increased year on year by 5.4% in the first
five months of 2020. According to the Federal State Statistics Service of
the Russian Federation, polymers in primary form accounted for the greatest
increase in the output in January-May. Production of benzene was 110,000 tonnes
in May 2020, which equalled the figure a month earlier. Overall output of this
product reached 615,000 tonnes over the stated period, up by 1.7% year on
year. |
