EPA defeats court challenge to higher ethanol levels in fuel
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WASHINGTON (Bloomberg) -- A challenge to an Environmental Protection Agency regulation allowing higher concentrations of corn-based ethanol in gasoline was thrown out by the U.S. Appeals Court in Washington on grounds that the groups pressing the case had no right to sue.
Grocery, auto and petroleum industry associations filed suit against the agency in November 2010, saying that rules allowing for increased used of corn-based ethanol in auto fuel would push up the price of food and gasoline and harm engines.
The court today ruled the groups couldn't show they had suffered specific harm as a result of the EPA's decisions.
"Each industry group advances a theory of standing, but none is in fact adequate to meet the burden of establishing standing," Circuit Judge David Sentelle wrote in the 17-page opinion.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association, the American Petroleum Institute and groups representing companies including Tyson Foods Inc. and Coca-Cola Co., challenged two EPA decisions that allowed the introduction E15, a gasoline blended with ethanol. The EPA in 2010 granted a request from ethanol producers to increase concentrations of the corn-based fuel in gasoline to as much as 15 percent from 10 percent for vehicles made for the model year 2007 and later.
Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh dissented from the three-judge panel's decision, saying the groups' standing to sue was established by the prospect of rising costs for their members.
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