The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal from refiners and other groups to overturn a lower-court decision denying its challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency's partial approval of the ethanol/gasoline blend E15.
The court declined the appeal from the American Fuel & PetrochemicalManufacturers and the American Petroleum Institute without comment. Other plaintiffs included groups representing auto makers and food stores.
The Supreme Court, like earlier courts that heard the case, did not rule on the merits. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out the challenge to the waiver allowing the sale of gasoline with 15% ethanol, saying AFPM and other plaintiffs were not directly harmed by the decision.
"Today's court decision is a big loss for consumers, for safety and for our environment," Harry Ng, API vice president and general counsel, said in a statement. "EPA approved E15 before vehicle testing was complete and we now know the fuel may cause significant mechanical problems in millions of cars on the road today."
Growth Energy, the biofuels group that originally petitioned the EPA to approve E15, praised the Supreme Court action.
"Today is a true victory for the American biofuels industry," CEO Tom Buis said in a statement. "Now that the final word has been issued, I hope that oil companies will begin to work with biofuel producers to help bring new blends into the marketplace that allow for consumer choice and savings."
The legal challenge to E15 is one of several fronts on which the battle over biofuels is being waged. The US House of Representatives will hold the first of several planned hearings later this week on the Renewable Fuel Standard in the first bipartisan effort to consider tweaking or even repealing the RFS since it was last changed in 2007.
The RFS mandates the blending of renewable fuels, including ethanol, into the nation's transportation fuel supply.
