Posted on 02/26/2013 4:56:20 PM PST by raptor22
Energy: In yet another green folly, the lawless Environmental Protection Agency continues to fine gasoline producers for not using cellulosic biofuels in quantities that don't exist, making only more pain at the pump.
Last month, a federal court dealt a serious blow to the Environmental Protection Agency's renewable fuels push by ruling that the agency exceeded its authority by mandating refiners use cellulosic biofuels, which aren't commercially available. The EPA's lawless response in a lawless administration was to raise its requirements.
In 2005 and 2007, Congress twice amended the Clean Air Act to establish a renewable fuel standard (RFS) that included a mandate to use cellulosic biofuels.
If refiners failed to meet the goals, the EPA could fine them. The RFS set ambitious goals for cellulosic biofuels but at least charged the EPA with reducing the requirement if production was lower than the mandate.
This the EPA simply ignored, issuing fines for failing to use this biofuel when it wasn't even available.
As Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner points out in Politico, 2010, the first year of the mandate, the EPA projected 5 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels would be available.
In fact, there were none. In 2011, the EPA increased the mandate to 6.5 million gallons. Again, the actual amount available was zero. Undeterred, in 2012, the EPA increased the required amount to 8.5 million gallons. The actual available amount was 25,000 gallons.
This absurdity prompted the American Petroleum Institute (API) to file a lawsuit last year challenging the EPA's rulemaking. The API petitioned the court to review the EPA's January 2012 RFS.
On Jan. 25, 2013, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed the EPA had exceeded its authority. "(W)e agree with API that EPA's 2012 projection of cellulosic biofuel production was in excess of the agency's statutory authority," ...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...
To Obama and the EPA, neither the courts nor the Constitution matter.
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What do I care about law? Ain't I got the power? ... Cornelius Vanderbilt
Joseph Stalin is famously said to have asked an adviser, dismissively, “How many divisions does the Pope have?"
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The market responds: Turn it into soil!
Oh, but we EE-PEE-ACES can't let that happen. Fine that refiner who didn't make such a process that uses more natural gas so that the farmer has to add more fertilizer made from natural gas to make up for his depleted soil.
Yeah, that'll work.
Not to the Obastard administration.
There is only one solution to the EPA. Shut it down.
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Clearly, the EPA considers itself above the law - which puts it right in harmony with the entire Obama administration.
“Laws? We don’t need no steeenking laws - we’re the government!”
But, hey, it's fo da chillins.
If I wanted a government like this, I cudda moved ta Venezuela.
In 2005 and 2007, Congress twice amended the Clean Air Act to establish a renewable fuel standard (RFS) that included a mandate to use cellulosic biofuels.
That second paragraph contradicts the first. Obviously, the EPA is required by law enacted by Congress to mandate the use of these fuels.
The actions may very well be wrong and heavy-handed, but the blame goes straight to Congress, not the EPA, on this one.
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