Analysis: Lawsuits likely as EPA declares US ethanol blend wall a 'reality'
Source: Reuters
Analysis: Lawsuits likely as EPA declares US ethanol blend wall a 'reality'
By Cezary Podkul
NEW YORK | Fri Oct 11, 2013 6:18am EDT
(Reuters) - With two words, the U.S. environment regulator may be handing oil refiners the biggest win of a long battle to beat back the seemingly inexorable rise of ethanol fuel.
In a leaked proposal that would significantly scale back biofuel blending requirements next year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the blend wall - the 10 percent threshold of ethanol-mixed gasoline that is at the crux of the lobbying war - is an "important reality".
The agency's rationale for a cut in the volume of ethanol that must be blended echoes an argument the oil industry has been making for months: the U.S. fuel chain cannot absorb more ethanol.
Few retailers are able to sell ethanol blends beyond the 10 percent maximum, or willing to take the legal risk that comes with it, they argue.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/11/us-ethanol-blendwall-analysis-idUSBRE99A09420131011
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