WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S. — The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) will deliver oral arguments alongside the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Justice on April 7 in support of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

In a case brought by oil refiner Monroe Energy LLC, NBB has intervened in support of the EPA to defend enforcement of the 2013 statutory RFS volumes, particularly in the advanced biofuel category. The case, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, has tremendous implications for the future of advanced biofuels because it will affirm the EPA’s obligation to maintain the statutory volumes amid persistent, unsupported calls to reduce those volumes, NBB said.

In the current case, Monroe Energy, joined by the American Petroleum Institute and other groups, is challenging the EPA’s handling of the 2013 volume requirements. Among the arguments supporting the EPA’s position, NBB points out that that the petroleum industry’s challenge makes no argument that insufficient volumes of renewable fuels were available in 2013 and fundamentally misinterprets the EPA’s authority to waive volume requirements under the law. NBB maintains that the EPA’s 2013 standards achieved the directives of Congress.

"The renewable fuels industry is united in supporting the RFS to promote production of clean, alternative fuels,” said Anne Steckel, NBB’s vice-president of federal affairs. “As the leading producer of Advanced Biofuels in the nation, the biodiesel industry has demonstrated that the advanced biofuel standard is working. The simple fact is that we have met or exceeded the advanced standard in each year of the program, including in 2013 when the RFS delivered more than 3.3 billion RIN-equivalent gallons of advanced fuels, made up mostly of biodiesel and renewable diesel.”

"Big Oil likes to say the RFS isn't working, but what's really broken is the decades-long stranglehold the petroleum industry has on our fuel supplies,” Steckel said. “Anyone who fuels up a car on a regular basis knows that we need competition and diversity in the industry. And the RFS is accomplishing that while also creating jobs and reducing harmful emissions that create tremendous public costs. American consumers would be better off if the oil industry spent a fraction of the time and money it spends suing the government to instead working constructively to diversify our fuel supplies and strengthen our energy security."