EPA JUST LOVES TO INCREASE THE COST OF FUEL TO THE CITIZENS OF AMERICA AS IT MANDATES THE USE OF ETHANOL A FOOD PRODUCED BLEND TO THE NATURAL EARTH RESOURCE–AS ADDING ETHANOL BLENDS RAISES FOOD PRICES AS WELL AS FUEL COST–THE NEVER ENDING DEMOCRAT PARTY ENVIRONMENTALS AGENDA AS CHAMPIONED BY THE POTUS BHO CHAOS TO ENSLAVE WITH OUT OF CONTROL HIGH ENERGY COST FOR ALL AMERICANS FOR WHAT A THEORY OF GLOBAL WARMING REVEALING THAT THE SUN RAYS REALLY DOES WARM THE EARTH IF NOT ALSO FOR ITS HOT VOLCANIC INNER CORE

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has settled an oil industry lawsuit and agreed to set the ethanol blending mandates for this year and last year by Nov. 30.

The 2014 mandate under the Renewable Fuel Standard will be two years late and this year’s will be one year late. But with an end to the delays finally in sight, the settlement ends a dispute that angered both the oil industry and ethanol producers.

“This schedule is consistent with EPA’s commitment to get the RFS program back on track, while providing certainty to renewable fuels markets and promoting the long-term growth of renewable fuels,” the agency said in a statement.

"Our goal is to provide the market with the certainty it needs to continue to grow renewable fuel volumes," Christopher Grundler, director of the EPA's office of transportation and air quality, told reporters Friday.

The settlement does not require the agency to set the volumes at any particular level. The agreement is still subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by a federal court.

Friday’s announcement ends lawsuits filed by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) over the EPA’s delays, which they said force refiners to guess how much ethanol to blend into their products before the agency decides a retroactive mandate.

The Renewable Fuel Standard requires that fuel refiners mix a certain volume of ethanol into gasoline and biodiesel into diesel each year.

The EPA is legally obligated to set those volume mandates by Nov. 30 each year for the following year.

The agency proposed in 2013 to reduce the ethanol mandate for the first time, to 15.21 billion gallons, while keeping the biodiesel mandate the same as the previous year. After multiple delays, EPA officials said most recently that they would make final the 2014 mandate by the end of spring.

The EPA said it will set next year’s mandate during this year, as it is required to do under the law.

The oil industry groups welcomed the settlement, but said they would rather see the EPA comply with the law. They said they still hope Congress either repeals or significantly reforms it to reduce the amount of ethanol that must be used.

Industry groups complain that the mandate increases their costs significantly, which are passed onto consumers through gasoline and diesel prices.

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/238448-epa-agrees-to-deadline-to-set-ethanol-mandate