WASHINGTON, D.C.—At present, Iowa Legal professional Basic Brenna Chook filed a movement for abstract judgment relating to the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA)’s failure to reply to the opt-out request filed by Iowa and 6 different midwestern states that will permit them to promote E15—a gasoline made with 15% bioethanol—year-round of their states. Progress Power CEO Emily Skor issued the next assertion in response:
“Biofuels leaders in Iowa, Nebraska, and different states have been greater than affected person. For greater than a yr previous the statutory deadline they’ve waited for EPA to comply with the regulation and permit them to make E15 obtainable of their states year-round.
“They’ve been compelled to return to courtroom to compel EPA to do one thing it was required to have executed by July 2022. What’s extra, in its continued choice to illegally delay performing on the governors’ request, EPA has cited gasoline distribution issues which might be vastly overstated, and might possible be attributed to the oil business utilizing scare ways to stop customers from getting larger entry to a gasoline that prices much less, burns cleaner, and displaces their merchandise with each gallon.
“E15 is a low-carbon gasoline that saves customers cash. It’s higher for the air and it’s higher for the agricultural economic system. Whereas it ought to by no means have come to this, immediately your complete biofuels business, the broader bioeconomy, and the driving public of the Midwest owes Iowa and Nebraska a debt of gratitude for in search of to supply year-round entry to E15.”
Background
Earlier this yr, the governors of a number of midwestern states despatched letters to EPA calling for regulatory parity between E10 (commonplace gasoline) and E15 (a mix with 15% bioethanol) of their states by Part 211(h)(5) of the Clear Air Act, accompanied by analysis illustrating the advantages of E15 to air high quality. After acknowledging receipt of the governors’ opt-out request, EPA proposed a rule in March 2023 to make the required regulatory adjustments to implement year-round sale of E15 in these states starting for the summer season of 2024.
In August 2023, the petitioning states filed swimsuit calling on the EPA to truly finalize its proposed rule governing the state opt-out waiver that will permit retailers of their states to promote E15 year-round. At present’s submitting for abstract judgment is part of that case.
