EPA Fights Refiner Push For High Court To Review RFS Compliance 'oint'

摘要

EPA is fighting refiners' bid for the Supreme Court to review EPA's renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance mechanism, arguing that a 2017 rulemaking, upheld by a federal appeals court, satisfies the agency's Clean Air Act duty to consider which entities must demonstrate compliance with the RFS' mandates for biofuel blending. In an April 3 brief filed with the high court in Valero Energy Corp., et al. v. EPA, the agency says that its 2017 rule that denied reconsideration of the RFS' "point of obligation" is sufficient to meet an air law requirement for EPA to consider whether the compliance obligation correctly lies with refiners and fuel importers, or should be shifted to other entities. The agency says the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit correctly upheld the 2017 rule, rejecting arguments by refiners that EPA must review the obligation point in its annual rules setting blending volumes for the following year.