WASHINGTON, April 10, 2015 – EPA has accepted a settlement with API and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) by agreeing to a November 30 deadline for setting requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The tentative consent decree comes after API and AFPM filed a lawsuit in March over EPA’s failure to meet congressionally mandated RFS deadlines.

“EPA has failed year after year to implement the RFS effectively,” said API General Counsel Stacy Linden. “The agency still hasn’t finalized the RFS requirements for this year or even last year, leaving companies to guess how much ethanol they were mandated to blend into gasoline.”

The Clean Air Act requires EPA to set the annual RFS ethanol mandates by November 30 of the preceding year, but EPA issued the 2013 requirements eight months late and has yet to issue the 2014 or 2015 requirements. Under the agreement, EPA pledges to propose the 2015 RFS mandate by June 1, 2015, and to finalize the 2014 and 2015 RFS mandates by November 30, 2015.

“We hope this agreement helps get the RFS back on track, but the only long-term solution is for Congress to repeal the program and let consumers, not the federal government, choose the best fuel to put in their vehicles,” Linden said. “Failure to repeal the unworkable law could put millions of motorists at risk of higher fuel costs, damaged engines, and costly repairs.”

A Congressional Budget Office report predicts higher gasoline and diesel costs under current ethanol mandates. E15 – a fuel blend with 15 percent ethanol – can damage engines and cause vehicles that use it to break down, according to Coordinating Research Council’s (CRC) testing. Auto manufacturers have said that using E15 will void car warranties.

API is the only national trade association representing all facets of the oil and natural gas industry, which supports 9.8 million U.S. jobs and 8 percent of the U.S. economy. API’s more than 625 members include large integrated companies, as well as exploration and production, refining, marketing, pipeline, and marine businesses, and service and supply firms. They provide most of the nation’s energy and are backed by a growing grassroots movement of more than 25 million Americans.