Food as Fuel on Margin Call

Topics:
- Context of the electric grid problems in Texas last week is the distortive nature of renewables in the generation mix.
- We cover the role renewables have played in the fuel supply in the Ethanol and Biodiesel industries.
- How government subsidized renewables have created a rent seeking monster in big agriculture, who are now a permanent part of the fuel mix.
- How renewable fuel prices have distorted market structure and led to higher than normal fuel prices which is simply passed through to the consumer.
- How the mechanism to track renewable fuels (RINS) has been a Rube Goldberg-ian system of epic incompetence, fraud and ultimately imposed such high compliance costs on refiners that the oil industry has spent the better part of the last few years begging the EPA for waivers to avoid bankruptcy.
- Explanation of the “Rinsanity events”

References:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-ethanol/u-s-refiners-plagued-by-rinsanity-see-half-step-on-biofuels-idUSBRE97605420130807