Two petroleum industry associations have filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over provisions in a final rule requiring motor fuel producers to include certain percentages of renewable fuels in their products.
The final renewable fuels standard rule published in March changes EPA regulations to include renewable fuel requirements for motor fuels established by Congress in 2007 in the Energy Independence and Security Act. That law requires the motor fuel supply to include 36 billion gallons of ethanol or other renewable fuels by 2022. In 2010, the law requires the industry to supply 12.95 billion gallons of renewable fuel. The final rule makes this requirement retroactive to Jan. 1, 2010.
Charles Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, said in a statement that the association is challenging the retroactive requirements in the rule. "Simply put, the fact that EPA failed to meet its statutory obligations under current energy law does not give the agency license to impose retroactively additional compliance burdens on obligated parties," he said.
The American Petroleum Institute issued a statement saying, "EPA made the rule effective on July 1, 2010, while setting unreasonable mandates on refiners that reach back to 2009 for bio-based diesel and to Jan. 1 for the other advanced biofuels." The API statement added that the retroactive standards will increase costs. "By setting retroactive requirements, refiners, and ultimately consumers, will be penalized for EPA's inability to get this rule out on time as directed by Congress," the statement said.
