The deadline for public comments on petitions seeking a waiver of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) expired last night on October 11, 2012. The Governors of Arkansas and North Carolina had submitted separate requests, in letters dated August 13, 2012 and August 14, 2012,  asking for a waiver of RFS volume requirements. Under Section 211(o)(7)(A) of the Clean Air Act, the Administrator of the EPA is permitted to waive national volume requirements of the RFS in whole or in part if implementation of those requirements would severely harm the economy or environment of a state, a region, or the United States, or if the Administrator determines there is an inadequate domestic supply of renewable fuel. Such a waiver may either be triggered through petition by one or more States, a party subject to RFS program requirements, or at the Administrator’s own motion. If a waiver is granted, it can last no longer than one year, but may be renewed by the Administrator after consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of Energy.Continue Reading Comment Period Closes for RFS Waiver Request: EPA Receives Nearly 30K Public Comments

The California Air Resources Board may soon get its wish.  Back in 2005, ARB first requested a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to allow California to regulate motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.  EPA denied the waiver two years later, after California threatened to sue EPA to force the agency to take action on the request.  The very day after President Obama’s inauguration into office, ARB filed with EPA a request for reconsideration of its waiver request.  Several days later, President Obama himself signed a Presidential Memorandum directing EPA to assess whether denial of the waiver was appropriate in light of the Clean Air Act.  Last Friday, Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, issued a Notice for Public Hearing and Comment on California’s request for consideration of the previous waiver denial, which officially initiates reconsideration by EPA.  Discussion at the public hearing on March 5, 2009 may get interesting, as the Notice’s ‘supplementary information’ included a brief discussion on how the waiver denial had "significantly departed from EPA’s longstanding interpretation of the Clean Air Act’s waiver provisions and from the Agency’s history, after appropriate review, of granting waivers to California for its new motor vehicle emission program."  Stay tuned.Continue Reading Will California be Able to Regulate GHG Tailpipe Emissions?