The Environmental Protection Agency has sent its proposed renewable fuel mandates for 2014, 2015 and 2016 to the White House for review, according to multiple media reports this week.
The EPA’s proposed rule would set renewable fuel standard requirements for 2014 and 2015, which are both overdue – again – as well as for 2016.
According to a proposed settlement with oil industry trade groups, the agency is under a June 1 deadline to issue the proposal and a Nov. 30 deadline to finalize it. The settlement would resolve a lawsuit filed by the American Petroleum Institute and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers over EPA’s failure to issue the standards in recent years.
Interagency review is typically the last step before the proposed rule is published in the Federal Register.
Also this week, the Hawaii legislature passed a bill that puts an end to a requirement that the corn-based additive be mixed into fuel sold in the state. The bill passed amid support from a coalition of environmentalists, fuel manufacturers and poultry farmers who blamed ethanol for cutting into their profits by raising the cost of feed, according to the Associated Press. “Diversion of corn for ethanol is causing corn prices to skyrocket,” Rep. Angus McKelvey, a Democratic member of the Hawaii House of Representatives, told AP.
Hawaii Governor David Ige hasn’t made a decision on the bill, but he indicated support Wednesday, according to the same report.
