White House Presses EPA for Bigger Refinery Waivers Amid High Pump Prices

The White House has asked federal environmental regulators to allow small oil refineries to blend less biofuels into their gasoline and diesel than initially projected.

This move is part of the administration's efforts to ease pump prices, which have been a concern for Republicans ahead of the November midterm elections.

Under current law, refiners are required to blend tens of billions of gallons of biofuels like corn-based ethanol into the country's fuel pool or buy renewable blending credits, called RINs, from those that do.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is reviewing 34 such requests and has projected approving enough waivers to cover around a billion RINs of biofuel blending obligations this year.

However, the White House has asked the EPA to waive a higher volume than that, which would cut meaningfully into overall biofuel blending mandates for the year.