Posted May 16, 2014
The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit recently rejected arguments challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2013 renewable fuel standard (RFS) , according to an article by The Hill available here. The Chicago Tribune also reported on the story here.
In rejecting arguments from Monroe Energy, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines, that the “EPA should have taken into account the costs of credits refiners must buy if they do not reach the required RFS levels,” the court stated that the agency had “wide latitude” to decide how to set the mandate.
This ruling could have broad implications for the biofuel mandate, as the EPA’s final 2014 RFS is due out at the end of June, according to an article by Reuters available here.
The Renewable Fuel Standard “requires increasing amounts of biofuels such as ethanol to be blended into U.S. gasoline and diesel supplies through 2022.” Refiners must accumulate credits, Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), “to prove they have blended their share of renewable fuels into gasoline and diesel.” If refiners are lacking credits, they can buy RINs on the open market.
Monroe argued that a spike in RIN prices could cost the company more than $100 million. The court, however, ruled that there was “no ground to conclude the 2013 standards are unlawful simply because the RINs are costlier than in prior years.
For more information on renewable energy, please visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
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