Posted May 16, 2014
The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit recently rejected arguments challenging the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s 2013 renewable fuel standard (RFS) , according to an article
by The Hill available here. The Chicago Tribune also reported on the
story here.
In rejecting arguments from Monroe Energy, a subsidiary
of Delta Air Lines, that the “EPA should have taken into account the costs of
credits refiners must buy if they do not reach the required RFS levels,” the
court stated that the agency had “wide latitude” to decide how to set the
mandate.
This ruling could have broad implications for the
biofuel mandate, as the EPA’s final 2014 RFS is due out at the end of June,
according to an article by Reuters available here.
The Renewable Fuel Standard “requires increasing
amounts of biofuels such as ethanol to be blended into U.S. gasoline and diesel
supplies through 2022.” Refiners must
accumulate credits, Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), “to prove they have
blended their share of renewable fuels into gasoline and diesel.” If refiners are lacking credits, they can buy
RINs on the open market.
Monroe argued that a spike in RIN prices could cost the
company more than $100 million. The court,
however, ruled that there was “no ground to conclude the 2013 standards are
unlawful simply because the RINs are costlier than in prior years.
For more information on renewable energy, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
