The EPA erred when it set the target for biofuels use in 2016 below the levels specified by Congress, said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a decision that vacated the regulation and ordered EPA to try again. The three-judge panel said EPA improperly interpreted the “inadequate supply provision” that allows it to waive the statutory targets for renewable fuel use.
For 2016, the EPA set the overall biofuels mandate at 18.11 billion gallons, compared to the statutory target of 22.25 billion gallons. The agency shaved 500 million gallons from the goal of 15 billion gallons for corn ethanol while halving the target for so-called advanced biofuels, such as biodiesel and cellulosic ethanol, which produce fewer greenhouse gases.
The case decided by the appeals court was a consolidation of legal challenges to EPA’s decision. Some of the lawsuits said EPA set the biofuels mandate at too high a level and others faulted the agency for setting it too low. “We reject all of those challenges, except for one: We agree with Americans for Clean Energy and its aligned petitioners … that EPA erred in how it interpreted the ‘inadequate domestic supply’ waiver provision,” said the court. It said EPA had authority to consider supply-side factors but not demand-side constraints.
The ethanol trade group Growth Energy said the appellate decision “restores congressional intent and will ensure that renewable fuels continue to play a growing and important role in America’s fuel mix.”
“The EPA said it’s still reviewing the decision, but ethanol groups said the ruling was a victory. Biofuel producers have long pushed the EPA to set higher blending requirements, something opposed by oil producers and refiners,” said The Hill newspaper.
When it filed suit, Americans for Clean Energy said the EPA wrongly muzzled “a program that was successfully driving development of cleaner biofuel technologies and reduction of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.” The petroleum industry contended the gasoline market was saturated at the traditional 10 percent blend of biofuels into gasoline, so the biofuels mandate had to be cut.
Second-generation biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol are years later than expected in reaching the market in large volumes. The EPA has repeatedly lowered the targets for the fuels. Early this month, it said it will begin the technical analysis that could lead to a permanently lower mandate for advanced biofuels.
To read the appellate court decision in Americans for Clean Energy vs. EPA, click here.