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Cruz Wants to Ease Renewable-Fuel Rules to Save Refiner Jobs

Cruz Calls for Easing Renewable-Fuel Rules to Save Refiner Jobs

(Bloomberg) -- Bankrupt U.S. refinery Philadelphia Energy Solutions LLC has friends in Washington, and wants you to know it. 

On Wednesday, the largest East Coast refinery acted as the backdrop for a stump-like speech by former Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz. The Texas Republican blamed ethanol mandates for the company’s bankruptcy, saying the Renewable Fuel Standard threatens jobs and even harms U.S. energy security.

Cruz Wants to Ease Renewable-Fuel Rules to Save Refiner Jobs

“When Harvey hit Texas, the East Coast refiners stepped up and helped fill that need,” Cruz said. “This is about good jobs, good union jobs that provide for your families.”

PES isn’t the only refiner that wants to overhaul the EPA’s biofuels program, but its recent bankruptcy has jumpstarted congressional efforts to stem compliance costs. Cruz has called for a 10-cent cap on the cost of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), just a fraction of their value, while insisting that such a change wouldn’t hurt corn growers.

“The solutions we put on the table will be a tremendous win for the refinery workers and a tremendous win for the corn farmers,” Cruz said in an interview with Bloomberg. “The most straight-forward solution is for the administration to cap the price of RINs.”

Biofuel advocates have a different stance on the policy: “The RFS has worked for over 12 years,” Brooke Coleman, executive director of the Advanced Biofuels Business Council, said in a statement. “PES has problems, but the more policy makers learn about the situation, the more it looks like a smoke screen cooked up by refinery owners seeking a handout.”

To contact the reporters on this story: Jessica Summers in New York at jsummers24@bloomberg.net, Catherine Traywick in Washington at ctraywick@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Marino at dmarino4@bloomberg.net, Mike Jeffers, Debarati Roy

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