Both the American Petroleum Institute and National Petrochemical & Refiners Association filed lawsuits on March 29 with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's Renewable Fuel Standard 2 rule, which was finalized on March 26.
The rule, which missed Congress' deadline by a year and a half, combines the 2009 and 2010 biomass-based diesel volumes and makes the entire rule retroactive to Jan. 1.
The U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced new gas mileage standards on April 1 that will require automakers to improve emissions from light-duty vehicles by 5 percent each year beginning in 2012, eliciting disappointment from industry groups.
The standards will result in average gas mileage increasing to about 34.1 mpg in model year 2016, leading to a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by about 960 million metric tons over the lifetime of the vehicles, and allowing the U.S. to conserve about 1.8 billion bbl of oil over that period of time, according to the EPA.
The recent economic recession, one the United States has not fully recovered from, claimed numerous casualties across several industries. In its aftermath, two refineries in the U.S. have been closed permanently, while two more have been idled. Poor margins due to weak demand were the catalysts.
"One consequence of the sharp decline in oil demand has been the development of significant excess refining capacity and the shutdown or idling of several U.S. refineries," the EIA said in a recent report on the petroleum industry.
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