The EPA acted reasonably and within the law when it added a 250-million-gallon ethanol mandate to the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2022, said U.S. appellate judges in a 2-1 ruling on Tuesday. The supplement was intended by the EPA to make up for its mistake in lowering the 2016 RFS by too much.
“EPA has the authority to impose a supplemental 2022 volume to make up for volume that should have been satisfied in 2016,” said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in an opinion written by Judge Cornelia Pillard and joined by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan. Judge Gregory Katsas dissented in that part of the ruling, which covered a variety of challenges to the RFS for 2020, 2021, and 2022.
The petroleum industry challenged the 250 million-gallon supplement, saying the RFS law did not contain a “true-up mechanism on the back end if things don’t go as planned” and failed to look for better ways to resolve the issue.
The Renewable Fuels Association said the ruling “puts the RFS on solid footing for the future” by affirming the EPA’s realm of authority in renewable fuels. The case before the circuit court touched on advanced biofuels and how to account for small-refinery exemptions while setting the RFS as well as the challenge to the 250 million-gallon supplement.
In 2017, the circuit court said the EPA erred in reducing the 2016 RFS by 500 million gallons. The biofuel industry repeatedly said the agency was taking too long to correct the mistake. In 2022, the EPA said it would issue supplemental standards of 250 million gallons each for 2022 and 2023. Only the 2022 supplement was at issue in the case.
The court decision is available here.