Continuing a national trend, the United States’ second-largest oil refining company has recently requested a biofuel hardship waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The waiver, if granted, would allow refining giant Marathon Petroleum Corp. to exempt one of its facilities from Obama-era federal biofuel quotas. This move coincides with a recent campaign by the EPA to expand biofuel waivers, to the delight of the oil industry and the equally strong dismay of the corn lobby, who depend on the biofuel standard for sales of alternative corn-based fuels like ethanol. The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) has been a huge boon to farmers, creating a 15 billion gallon a year market for corn-based ethanol. On the other hand, over the past few months the EPA has saved the oil industry hundreds of millions of dollars in regulatory costs by way of similar biofuel hardship waivers. These waivers are given to […]