U.S. Appeals Court throws out E15 lawsuit against EPA

In late 2010, the EPA was sued by a collection of grocery, auto and petroleum industry association groups over the issue of increasing the nationally available ethanol blend from E10 – a mix of 90 percent gasoline and 10 percent ethanol – to E15. Today, that lawsuit was thrown out by a U.S. Appeals Court on the grounds that the trade groups did not have the right to sue, Bloomberg reports.

The trade organizations claimed that the shift to E15 would drive up "the price of food and gasoline and harm engines," Bloomberg writes, but the judge did not see that any harm was done. In his decision, Circuit Judge David Sentelle wrote:

Petitioners have to demonstrate that EPA's actions-in particular, approving E15 via partial waivers-have caused any one of their members an injury in fact for which we can provide redress in this action. Each industry group advances a theory of standing, but none is in fact adequate to meet the burden of establishing standing under Article III.

You can read the entire decision here. A director for the American Petroleum Institute emailed Bloomberg to say, "Today's court decision is a big loss for consumers, for safety and for our environment." E15 wasofficially approved for sale in the U.S. last month, and comes with a new set of rules.

Source: Autoblog Green