The National Biodiesel Board is seeking to defend the biodiesel industry’s interest with regard to the Renewable Fuel Standards (RFS) and has filed a petition in federal court against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because of RFS volumes.
The lawsuit is one of several recently filed by RFS investors.
Additional lawsuits will likely be brought up on EPA’s behalf to defend the agency’s handling of the RFS program, which the NBB will likely challenge. Lawsuits could be filed to either defend or challenge the EPA’s authority on such matters as increases in the diesel program and other areas of the EPA’s final RFS standards for 2014-2016.
“We appreciate the work that the EPA did last year to improve the final RFS rule to pave the way for modest growth in the biomass-based diesel category and to get the RFS program back on track.” NBB said in a statement following the lawsuit. “As we have in the past, we will likely be intervening on EPA’s behalf in defense of the program against other lawsuits. But we have significant concerns in this rule about the EPA’s use of waiver authority and the methodology the EPA used to reduce the statutorily required Advanced Biofuel volumes. The law requires that the EPA should be establishing the strongest standards possible to ensure that the RFS is stimulating the production of Advanced Biofuels like biodiesel and renewable diesel, and we believe they fell short of that requirement.”
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