Posted April 10, 2014
Legislators and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit are asking questions over the delay in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) implementation of the 2013 renewable fuel standard (RFS).
Congressmen Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Steve Womack (R-AR), and Peter Welch (D-VT) recently sent a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy requesting additional information on the challenges of implementing the RFS ethanol mandate, according to an Agri-Pulse article available here. The letter is available here.
On April 7, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the EPA’s final rule for the 2013 RFS, according to an article by Bloomberg BNA available here.
“Why in the world is EPA so egregiously late on this, and why are they consistently [late]?” asked Judge Thomas Griffith during oral arguments.
The EPA had a statutory deadline to issue the RFS by Nov. 30, 2012, but the rule was not finalized until August 15, 2013.
Moore Energy LLC, the American Petroleum Institute and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers filed suit, Moore Energy LLC v. EPA, D.C. Cir., No. 14-1033, asking the court to overturn the rule prior to the June 30 compliance date. They argue “that the rule was issued retroactively and that the EPA failed to provide adequate notice of revisions it made to the blending requirements between proposals and finalization that increased obligated parties’ burdens.
Brian Lynk, Justice Department attorney for the EPA, argued that the “agency has only suffered significant delays in issuing the annual blending requirements when it had to respond to unique circumstances requiring additional analysis.
A summary of the arguments presented is available from Ethanol Producer Magazine here. An audio recording of the full oral argument is available here.
For more information on renewable energy, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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