Research & Commentary: Renewable Fuel Standard The U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS),
created by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and expanded in 2007
through the Energy Independence and Security Act, requires 36
billion gallons of renewable fuel be blended into gasoline and
diesel fuel by 2022. The program also requires American
agriculture/energy producers to generate 1.28 billion gallons of
biodiesel in 2013, a 28 percent increase from 2012. The RFS was
mandated on the pretext of reducing carbon dioxide emissions and
U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Ethanol industry representatives
even claim the blends lower gas prices. That is contradicted by
a recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
that concluded ethanol does not reduce the cost of gasoline
because ethanol possesses only two-thirds the energy density of
gasoline and thus has lower gas mileage than non-blended fuel.
RFS proponents also overlook the fact that because gasoline
prices are primarily depende