A federal court Tuesday rejected challenges from opposite sides over the minimum biofuel-blending requirements EPA set for transportation fuels in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said EPA acted within its authority in setting, mostly retroactively, the minimum volumes through the renewable fuel standard for those three years.
Tuesday’s opinion by Judge Cornelia Pillard, an Obama appointee, denied requests by the petroleum refiners and the American Petroleum Institute, as well as cellulosic biofuel producers, to revisit the regulations EPA set in July 2022.
In essence, the court agreed with EPA’s position that it acted properly in setting the volumes based in part on a waiver of cellulosic biofuel volume mandates in the RFS, which is standard practice because the industry hasn’t been able to produce levels envisioned in the mid-2000s law.
