Oil lobbies sue EPA on RFS2

By | April 26, 2010

Both the American Petroleum Institute and the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association filed lawsuits with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the U.S. EPA's rule on the recently finalized revised renewable fuel standard (RFS2). The final RFS2 rule combines the 2009 and 2010 biomass-based diesel volumes.

"While the U.S. oil and natural gas industry recognizes and appreciates the role of ethanol and other biofuels in the fuel marketplace, we are deeply concerned that the EPA's final RFS2 rule could result in higher consumer costs," API stated. "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. We believe this rule is unlawful and unfair�EPA made the rule effective on July 1, 2010, while setting unreasonable mandates on refiners that reach back to 2009 for biomass-based diesel, and to Jan. 1, 2010 for the other advanced biofuels."

Charles T. Drevna, president of the NPRA, said, "Our concern is with the unreasonable retroactive application of certain provisions of the rule and fundamental fairness in the implementation of policy � EPA retroactively and unlawfully imposed RFS2 compliance burdens on obligated parties, many of whom are NPRA members. Simply put, the fact that EPA failed to meet its statutory obligations under current energy law does not give [EPA] license to impose retroactively additional compliance burdens on obligated parties. At the least, such action calls into serious question the fundamental fairness of EPA's RFS2 rulemaking process."