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The Renewable Fuel Standard, created a decade ago to strengthen U.S. energy security and benefit American consumers, is doing neither. The RFS is broken and should be repealed or significantly reformed with the interests of consumers the top priority.

That's the message API Downstream Group Director Frank Macchiarola delivered during a conversation with a group of energy reporters this week. By law, EPA must announce how much ethanol will be mandated in the 2017 fuel supply by Nov. 30 under the RFS. Protecting consumers should be the agency's focus.

Macchiarola reminded reporters that the RFS was created as a response to falling domestic energy production and rising crude imports circumstances that have been reversed thanks to America's energy renaissance and flat demand for gasoline. The market has shown that the (RFS) policy is outdated,†Macchiarola said.

Macchiarola was joined by representatives of other groups with concerns about continued implementation of the RFS in its current form: the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) and the National Chicken Council (NCC). Macchiarola said there's bipartisan support in Congress for action on the RFS:

There is a growing number of both Republicans and Democrats who understand that the (RFS) policy is broken and that there's a real opportunity to provide reform and that the blend wall and the encroaching breach of the blend wall could be that impetus for those (reforms).â€

NMMA's Michael Lewan said EPA would restrict choice for boaters, among whom zero-ethanol fuel is popular, because higher ethanol blends can damage marine engines. An EPA draft proposal would mandate ethanol at levels in the fuel supply that would limit E0 to about 200 million gallons compared to the 5.3 billion gallons the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates were used in 2015. Lewin:

They're denying consumers the choice our consumers the choice. … We can't use those mid- and high-level (ethanol) blends. So, on the one hand they're telling us we can't use the fuel that we can use, but we also cannot use the fuels that they are increasing in the marketplace.â€

The NCC's Tom Super said ethanol mandates impact corn prices, which then a...