The American Petroleum Institute has filed a lawsuit in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s renewable fuel volume requirements for 2013. The group says the mandate demands the use of far more cellulosic ethanol than is available in the marketplace. According to API Vice President and General Counsel Harry Ng – EPA’s unrealistic ethanol mandates for 2013 are simply bad public policy. He adds that EPA issued this year’s requirements nine months late. But Renewable Fuels Association President Bob Dinneen calls the lawsuit another frivolous effort by API to abuse the court system in their slavish effort to repeal a public policy that is working for farmers, gasoline marketers and consumers.
While Dinneen admits the 2013 requirements were issued later than anyone would have liked – he says all stakeholders have been producing and blending at levels that will unquestionably meet the 2013 requirements. Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis wasn’t surprised by the lawsuit. He says Big Oil is doing everything possible to undermine the RFS and prevent competition in the marketplace from higher blends of renewable fuel.
Tom Buis, with Growth Energy, said in a statement, “This latest move comes as no surprise. Big Oil is doing, and continues to do everything possible to undermine the RFS and prevent competition in the marketplace from higher blends of renewable fuel.”