The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers on December 1 filed a notice of intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failure to issue the 2015 Renewable Fuel Standard.
The required notice under the Clean Air Act is the first step in initiating formal litigation over the Agency’s failure to promulgate the annual renewable fuel volumes to the RFS by Nov. 30 of the preceding year, meaning that the Agency should have finalized the 2015 RFS rule on or before Nov. 30, 2014. AFPM also filed a notice of intent to sue EPA for failure to issue the 2014 RFS on Nov. 21, 2014, almost a year after the deadline and prior to EPA’s announcement to postpone a final decision until 2015.
“For some reason, the Administration feels that it is above the law and does not need to comply with the statutory deadlines of the RFS. At this point we have no choice but to take the matter to court. Today, obligated parties are left to sit and wait for EPA to not only propose the 2015 standard, but to actually issue a final rule for 2014, which we now know that EPA has no intention of doing until sometime in 2015. This disregard for the law and obvious contempt for the obligated parties are reasons why Congress needs to step in and repeal or significantly reform this badly broken program,” said AFPM President Charles T. Drevna.
