Refiner Sues EPA In Bid To Shift RFS Compliance Burden To Fuel Blenders

摘要

A refining company is suing EPA in a bid to shift the burden of compliance with the agency's renewable fuel standard (RFS) from fuel refiners and importers to companies that blend renewable fuels such as ethanol into the fuel supply, claiming EPA's recent multi-year RFS fuel volumes rule re-opens for litigation a 2010 rule establishing the burden. The Clean Air Act typically limits suits over agency regulations to 60 days after their publication in the Federal Register, making Jan. 30 the deadline to sue over the RFS rule for 2014 through 2016 that was published in the Dec. 1 Register. But under the "after-arising" grounds doctrine, petitioners can use timely challenges to a new rule as a vehicle for challenging years-old rules if the new rule is deemed to have reopened the old rule to judicial review.