They could pay patent royalties on any infringing gasoline, reduce the amount of RFG they produce, or attempt to develop formulations that are outside the scope of the patents. Each option is likely to reduce the flexibility of refiners and increase the cost of making reformulated gasoline. For all of these reasons, today s gasoline supplies haven t been enough to meet demand at the record low prices that consumers enjoyed not long ago. That s why prices rose. The government can help reduce the potential for market volatility by making environmental regulations more reasonable and workable.
Environmental rules are an important driving force behind our cleaner air and water.
But improvements are possible that would give companies more flexibility to adjust to problems that may have temporary impacts on supply and price. The first step is to eliminate unnecessary rules. We should also ensure that new requirements produce substantial benefits with minimal threat to fuel supplies. EPA s new proposal to improve diesel fuel by reducing sulfur is right directionally, but it over-reaches which could seriously impact diesel supplies with no guarantee of added environmental improvements beyond those achieved by a more moderate approach. Supplies could be affected because some companies now making diesel fuel may not want to make the huge investments that would be necessary to reduce sulfur as low as EPA wants.