WASHINGTON – Valero Energy Corp. sent a letter to the Obama administration earlier this week, urging it to waive the country’s ethanol mandate immediately, arguing that the cost to reach it is too high, Bloomberg reports.

“We need the waiver now,” Valero CEO Bill Klesse, said in a letter to Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy.  

Refiners are required this year to use 13.8 billion gallons of ethanol, attaching renewable identification numbers (RINs) to each gallon of ethanol to track compliance. Once the additive is blended into gasoline, refiners can retain the RIN to show compliance or trade it to another party. RINs prices have risen more than eight-fold this year because of falling gasoline demand and higher biofuel consumption targets, Klesse said in his letter.

“You have the flexibility to waiver volumes which will lower the price of RINs now, will lower the cost to the consumer and make the marketplace fair,” Klesse said.