Ethanol Trails Gasoline as ‘Blend Wall’ Sends RINs to Record
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Ethanol weakened against gasoline as the value of renewable identification numbers for the corn-based biofuel jumped to a record on concern production and consumption won’t meet U.S. targets.
The spread expanded 0.42 cent to 69.15 cents a gallon a day after prices for RINs jumped to a record 90.5 cents from 77 cents on March 6, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Refiners use RINs, the certificates that help the Environmental Protection Agency track whether refiners are meeting federal biofuel-use mandates, in lieu of blending a physical gallon of ethanol. Stagnant gasoline demand plus higher ethanol consumption targets is known as the “blend wall.”