Description: Action to compel EPA to establish renewable fuel volume requirements for the 2014 and 2015 compliance years.
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American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers v. McCarthy
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 04/10/2015 Consent Decree Download Proposed consent decree lodged. EPA, AFPM, and API reached an agreement regarding a schedule for EPA to propose and finalize renewable fuel standards for 2014 and 2015. The proposed consent decree—notice of which was published in the Federal Register on April 20—requires EPA to propose renewable fuel obligations for 2015 by June 1, 2015 and to finalize them by November 30, 2015. EPA would also have until November 30, 2015 to finalize the obligations for 2014 and to respond to the plaintiffs’ request for a partial waiver of renewable fuel applicable volumes for 2014. EPA also indicated that it was its intention to propose and finalize the renewable fuel volumes for 2016 in the same timeframe as it was addressing the 2015 volumes. 03/18/2015 Complaint Download Complaint filed. AFPM and API filed an action in the federal district court for the District of Columbia to compel EPA to establish renewable fuel volume requirements for the 2014 and 2015 compliance years. The trade associations asserted that EPA had ignored its nondiscretionary duty to publish annual renewable fuel volumes and renewable fuel obligations by November 30 of the year preceding each compliance year. The trade associations also alleged that EPA had failed to respond to the organizations’ 2013 request for a partial waiver of the applicable renewable fuel volumes for 2014, which are established by the Clean Air Act. AFPM and API filed notices of their intent to file the lawsuit in November and December 2014. EPA announced in the Federal Register on December 9, 2014 that it would not finalize the 2014 standards until sometime in 2015; EPA had not yet proposed 2015 standards. 12/15/2014 Notice of Intent to Sue Notices of intent to sue submitted to EPA. In November and December 2014, EPA received four letters from two organizations notifying the agency of intent to file lawsuits to compel EPA to issue biomass-based diesel and renewable fuel requirements for 2014 and 2015. One organization, the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), said that “EPA’s track record has become an egregious pattern of statutory non-compliance.” The American Petroleum Institute (API) included a table in its letter that listed EPA’s delays since 2010 in determining annual renewable fuel requirements. API also indicated that it also planned to sue to require EPA to respond to a 2013 waiver application.