Pennsylvania lawmakers joined several of their colleagues in urging Congress to act on a bipartisan, bicameral energy production bill that aims to protect national security and American jobs while spurring investment in advanced biofuel sources.
The Safeguarding Domestic Energy Production and Independence Act, introduced in July 2023 in both houses of Congress, would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to make renewable fuel credits available for sale.
However, since its introduction, the bill has languished in several committees in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives.
U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) led the introduction of H.R. 4576 in his chamber, alongside three cosponsors, including U.S. Reps. Brendan Boyle (D-PA) and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), while U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) sponsored S. 2242 with three original cosponsors, including U.S. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA).
Casey and Fitzpatrick led nine of their colleagues, including Scanlon and U.S. Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), in sending a July 31 letter to leadership in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee, the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, and the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee highlighting the unintended consequences of portions of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on independent refiners.
To comply with RFS, independent refiners must purchase credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers (RIN), which in recent years have sharply risen in price, according to their letter, and they urged committee leaders to combat volatile RIN prices to protect jobs and energy security.
The bill, wrote the lawmakers, “will provide relief from the runaway cost of RFS compliance for independent refiners as a result of distorted RIN credit prices.”
The lawmakers also underscored what they called “the urgent need for action” on the bill to protect the livelihoods of oil refinery union workers at such refineries in Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey.
“Refineries in the Philadelphia region — including the Monroe refinery in Trainer, Pennsylvania, and PBF refineries in Delaware City, Delaware, and Paulsboro, New Jersey — are struggling under the heavy burden of RINs compliance and costs,” they wrote, noting that, “collectively, these refiners directly employ thousands of hardworking men and women in our energy industry and support the employment of tens of thousands more through the supply chain.”
The Safeguarding Domestic Energy Production and Independence Act would offer a common-sense compromise that would support the transition to renewable fuels while restoring long-term certainty for domestic refiners and protecting national energy security, which is supported by dozens of unions, business groups, and the National Wildlife Federation, according to their letter.
Specifically, their bill would direct the EPA to issue and sell “conventional biofuel waiver credits” at a low, fixed price for refiners to use for RFS compliance if they are unable to obtain RINs cost effectively in the marketplace.
“We respectfully request that you raise this bill for consideration by [your] committee,” wrote the lawmakers.