RFS controversy continues in US

Earlier this year, Gina McCarthy, Head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), warned that the US energy markets could not reach the levels of biofuels required this year, by law, to be blended into the fuel supply. That law is the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) programme, which was created as part of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. It was the first renewable fuel volume mandate in the US. The original programme required 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended into gasoline by 2012, and calls for increasing amounts of biofuels used in the US each year until 2022.  However, there has been controversy and pressure, with oil giants calling for a decrease in the limits and renewable fuel sector workers seeking the maintain them.