API Sues EPA on Cellulosic Ethanol portion of 2011 RFS
Interesting timing - yesterday I linked to my article in Oil & Energy Magazine giving an overview of the state of the Cellulosic Ethanol Industry and the EPA's mandate that 2012 production hits 8.65 million gallons per the 2011 Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). I mentioned that critics argued that commercial production of Cellulosic remains at low enough levels that many argue they cannot possibly hit the target set by the EPA, despite steps forward that have been made in production.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) filed a lawsuit against the EPA on July 24th 2012 in D.C. Circuit Court arguing the Cellulosic portion of the Renewable Fuels Standard mandates the use of “nonexistent cellulosic biofuels”. API’s Director of Downstream and Industry Operations, Bob Greco stated that the “EPA’s unattainable and absurd mandate forces refiners to pay a penalty for failing to use biofuels that don’t even exist. The mandate is effectively an added tax on gasoline manufacturers that could ultimately burden consumers.”
You can read API’s news statement describing the lawsuit on their website using the following link: http://www.api.org/news-and-media/news/newsitems/2012/jul-2012/api-files-lawsuit-against-epa-for-mandating-use-nonexistent-biofuels.aspx