A group of plaintiffs recently filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging how the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) has recently been implemented. Attorneys for the EPA filed a court brief this week saying it followed the law. A DTN report says oral arguments are scheduled for April 24 in the D.C. Court of Appeals. The 165-page brief goes through the reasons why the EPA denied a petition to change the point of obligation under the RFS, how it set the biofuel requirements for 2017-2018, and a number of other issues raised by agriculture, biofuels, and petroleum groups. The EPA rejected a petition from petroleum interests to change the point of obligation under the RFS from refiners and petroleum importers to blenders. Petroleum interests say it would spread the cost of compliance throughout the industry, but the EPA said it would take the number of companies that need to be in compliance from hundreds to thousands. The EPA has also taken heat for missing multiple statutory deadlines and for how it went about setting biofuels volumes for the next year.
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting news service.