By Erin Voegele, Biomass Magazine.

The Biotechnology Innovation Organization recently released a white paper that analyzes U.S. EPA data, challenging the widely accepted assumption that the blend wall caused the 2013 spike in renewable identification number (RIN) prices.

The white paper, titled “The Myth of High RIN Prices as Proof of the Blend Wall,” analyzes data recently released by the EPA on renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance between 2010 and 2013, which is the last year for which complete compliance data is currently available.

“The success of the renewable fuel standard has become distorted by the myth that U.S. refiners have encountered an unbreakable blend wall,” said Brent Erickson, executive vice president of BIO’s Industrial & Environmental Section. “Oil refiners, their champions in Congress, and even EPA have proposed changes to the RFS program based on this myth. Yet these changes to the RFS are aimed at solving a problem that never existed."