ALEXANDRIA, Va.—RINs, RFS and EVs are more than alphabet soup—they all impact the fuels sector. Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) are “a credit that gets attached to every renewable fuel gallon that gets produced in the United States,” explained Reo Menning, president and CEO of RINAlliance, during this week’s episode of Convenience Matters, “RINs, RFS and EVs and What They Mean to the Fuels Sector.” Menning explained, “That credit remains attached to that renewable fuel gallon until it is blended with gasoline or diesel.”

Each year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets a compliance guideline for how many RINs have to be retired on each gallon of gasoline or diesel. “They’re essentially a compliance credit, but they work on a market with respect to how they’re priced,” Menning said.

RINs intersect with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on the compliance part. “RIN markets have been around for a long time, … helping small blenders be able to market those RINs at current prices,” she said.

Menning said that she envisions the RFS becoming “something that also embraces electric credits and has RINs for electrification. That being said, right now, it is focused on those biofuels that are out there that definitely reduce carbon intensity relative to diesel and gasoline.”

The Biden Administration has been supportive of the RFS, and Menning sees biofuels lowering the carbon intensity, reducing “carbon in the environment for every gallon that they displaced. And what retailers, fuel marketers need to do is be in the game … for biofuels.”

Each week a new Convenience Matters episode is released. With more than 280 episodes to choose from, the podcast can be heard on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play and other podcast apps and YouTube and at www.conveniencematters.com. Episodes have been downloaded more than a quarter million times by listeners around the world.