WASHINGTON–()–The American Petroleum Institute (API) is once again misleading Congress
and the general public about the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS); this
time, as it pertains to a January 2012 ruling by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The ruling ordered the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider the 2012 RFS obligation for
cellulosic biofuels but rejected all other complaints brought by API.
API now wants to pressure EPA to do what the Court would not.
“EPA’s projection should not be unrealistically low, but it also may not
be unrealistically high.”
In a new letter this week to EPA Assistant Administrator Gina McCarthy,
API now says that zeroing out the 2012 obligation is the only proper
implementation of the Court’s ruling. But in its own brief to the Court,
API acknowledged that EPA’s prediction should not be zero, indicating,
“EPA’s projection should not be unrealistically low, but it also may not
be unrealistically high.” API also claimed to the Court that its members
paid $ 17 million in compliance costs for the RFS, when public records
available at the time showed the true cost to be a fraction of that
amount.
“The cellulosic biofuel industry now has facilities under construction
and starting up in 20 states, representing billions of dollars in
private investment,” said Brooke Coleman, executive director of the
Advanced Ethanol Council. “API’s strategy on the RFS is simple: create
as much uncertainty and doubt around the program as possible to scare
off investors from advanced biofuels. They have lost 10 percent of their
market share to domestically produced renewable fuels to date, and they
are not going to let the truth stand in the way of their efforts to
short-circuit this incredibly successful program.”
Brent Erickson, executive vice president of the Biotechnology Industry
Organization’s Industrial & Environmental Section, added, “API is trying
to re-litigate in the press the issues it lost in court. The Court
recognized EPA’s authority to administer the rules for the RFS, and EPA
should reject this attempt to spin that decision. It is interesting that
just as reputable companies such as DuPont, INEOS, POET-DSM, and Abengoa
are actually getting steel in the ground and building commercial
cellulosic biorefineries, API is turning on the crocodile tears and
ramping up gross distortions in a desperate and foolish effort to derail
American biotech innovation for new and cleaner transportation fuels.
They want to strangle the infant cellulosic biofuel industry in the
cradle in order to keep Americans captive consumers of high-priced
foreign oil.”
Advanced biofuel companies across the United States have invested in
technology development and construction of first-of-a-kind commercial
scale refineries for cellulosic and other advanced biofuels. API is
decrying the new EPA proposal to blend 14 million gallons of cellulosic
biofuels in 2013, saying the fuel does not exist. In reality, EPA’s
targets are based on production capacities of plants that are already
built.
Advanced biofuel trade organizations today opposed API’s request and
recommended that EPA follow the Court’s direction and remain consistent
in its thoughtful implementation of the program’s rules, despite the
delays and interference already caused by API’s multiple lawsuits.
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