Nationwide waiver of biofuels mandate would boost gas prices by $1.10, association says

Bob Dineen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, projected that a nationwide waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standard would result in an immediate $1.10 hike in the price of gasoline to $4.71 per gallon. “It would kill consumers,” John Urbanchuk, the director of industry analysis group LECG, told Reuters. “It would add a bit over $1.10 a gallon to gasoline in the short term because you’ve got to go out and replace that 4.5 billion gallons of ethanol.”

A Merrill Lynch study estimated that U.S. gas prices would be 45 cents per gallon higher without the effect of ethanol blending, confirming a similar finding from the Ethanol Promotion and Information Council last summer.

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