BIOMASS HUB

Updating an earlier story (see Big Oil Pushes Back Against RFS2), the petroleum industry will face an uphill battle with the lawsuits it filed against the US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) renewable fuel mandate.

The American Petroleum Institute (API) and National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) filed separate legal challenges with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in March. 

According to legal scholars, the petroleum industry’s main complaint – that the EPA missed by more than a year its target date for rolling out its mandate, and that therefore its requirement that petroleum companies account for not only 2010 biofuels blending targets but also those for 2009 – is unlikely to succeed in court.

According to Victor Flatt, professor of environmental law at the University of Houston:

The jurisprudence regarding retroactive effect makes a challenge difficult unless the retroactive impact is severe, which isn’t the case here in my opinion.  The industry was certainly aware of what the EPA was going to do from its draft rulemaking.

James Coan, research associate for the Energy Forum at Rice University in Houston, adds:

Despite the EPA’s delay in officially releasing the rule, blenders should have known how much biofuels they would need to blend.  Congress mandated with EISA how much fuel would be needed each year. It just seems the EPA was rubberstamping what was already there.

The EPA declined to discuss the lawsuits.

More analysis on the petroleum industry lawsuits.