The Renewable Fuels Association says its found evidence that RIN waivers are destroying ethanol demand. The 
Environmental Protection Agency has been handing out hardship waivers “like candy,” according to refining executives. The waivers grant refiners a pass on RINs, the mechanism by which Renewable Fuel Standard compliance is tracked.
Renewable Fuels Association executive vice president Geoff Cooper says the credits also provide a strong economic incentive for the expansion of ethanol blending beyond E10. Thus, when RIN prices collapse, “the incentive to expand ethanol blending is also weakened.” Cooper says the waivers and other actions by the EPA are rapidly destroying demand for ethanol and corn. A settlement with a bankrupt refiner, the waiver exemption, and failure to enforce 2016 statutory requirements, Cooper says, “effectively reduced the 2016 and 2017 RFS volumes each by one billion gallons or more.”
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.