The Clean Air Task Force and Friends of the Earth filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the EPA’s regulations for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and petitioned the Agency to reconsider its assumption regarding land conversion.
The EPA’s finalized regulations for the RFS released in March 2010 do not meet standards set in Congress 2007 expansion of the RFS biofuels mandate, the groups claim. The 2007 RFS included requirements that biofuels reduce net greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional gasoline and diesel. Safeguards to protect natural ecosystems from biofuel crop production were also included.
“The EPA must look at the impact that the biofuels mandate is having on
global warming today and not use rosy projections about what the state
of biofuel production will be in 2022," Friends of the Earth Energy Policy Campaigner Kate McMahon said. "Using these projections ensures
that for the next several years greenhouse gas emissions will only get
worse, rather than better. The EPA also needs to take into consideration
current research about existing land conversion for biofuels crop
production and provide the congressionally mandated safeguards for
natural ecosystems.”
The legal challenge results from the EPA using "optimistic" projections about emissions from biofuel production in 2022, rather than current data regarding emissions from biofuel production, to finalize lifecycle greenhouse emissions assessments. Using this flawed method, the EPA determined that all biofuels meet 2007 emissions standards, despite a growing body of research that indicate some biofuels result in worse emissions than conventional gasoline, the environmental groups said.
Friends of the Earth and the Clean Air Task Force also petitioned the EPA to reconsider its assumption that no natural ecosystems will be destroyed to create plantations. The groups say this assumption is based on outdated data and fails to account for recent USDA studies showing existing land conversion from biofuels. Due to this assumption, EPA regulations lack measures to protect natural ecosystems in the United States from conversion into biofuel plantations.
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