Food, farm groups sue EPA over higher ethanol blend

A coalition of farm and food groups on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, saying its approval of a higher ethanol gasoline blend for new cars violates federal law.
 
The nine groups — including the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the American Meat Institute, the National Council of Chain Restaurants and the National Pork Producers Council — argue the higher blend violates the Clean Air Act requirement that a fuel blend “will not cause or contribute to a failure of any emission control device or system.”
 
Bill Wehrum, a lead attorney representing the groups from Hunton & Williams law firm, said there is also the “real possibility the wrong fuel is going to be going into the wrong engine.”

“This goes far beyond just purely theoretical legal concerns,” he said.
 
Livestock groups also cite higher feed costs due to higher corn prices they say are a result of more production and use of ethanol, which is primarily corn-based. 

EPA last month granted a waiver allowing for E-15 — a blend of 85 percent gasoline and 15 percent ethanol — to be used in cars, light trucks and sport utility vehicles as old as model year 2007. The waiver does not mandate the use of E-15 in these vehicles but simply gives the green light for its use. It increased the 10 percent ethanol limit per gallon for those vehicles.
 
The agency also may soon decide whether the higher ethanol blend is suitable for cars and light trucks in model years 2001 through 2006 — the Energy Department is expected to complete testing this month.
 
EPA has punted indefinitely on determining whether it is safe for vehicles model year 2000 and older due to potential air quality concerns and insufficient data.
 
Ethanol groups — led by Growth Energy — are pushing EPA and the Energy Department to approve E-15 in older vehicles.
 
The other groups involved in the lawsuit are the National Meat Association, the National Turkey Federation, the National Chicken Council, the Snack Food Association and the American Frozen Food Institute.