RFS Compliance: Death Spiral or Investment in E85?
NERA经济咨询公司受美国石油协会委托，研究可再生燃料标准实施中的经济与合规问题，发现乙醇和生物柴油的混合壁垒可能导致汽油和柴油销量减少，引发燃料价格“死亡螺旋”，损害美国经济。
The American Petroleum Institute (API) commissioned NERA Economic Consulting to study “the economics and compliance issues related to the implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2).” NERA’s October 2012 report finds that ethanol and biodiesel blend walls create insurmountable barriers to the amount of biofuels that can be consumed in the United States. Once these blend walls are hit, producers of gasoline and diesel will only be able to comply with biofuel blending mandates by reducing domestic sales of gasoline and diesel. NERA argues that such cuts will make it even more difficult to meet blending mandates in subsequent years, thus leading to further reductions in gasoline and diesel sales. This series of fuel sales reductions leads to an upward “death spiral” in fuel prices, with severe harm to the US economy.