DES MOINES, Iowa — The State of Iowa is suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after the organization failed to respond to Gov. Kim Reynolds' request for the year-round sale of E15 gasoline. The State of Nebraska is suing alongside Iowa.
Back on April 28, 2022, Reynolds and eight other states in the Midwest sent a letter to the agency to ask them to waive limitations on E15 gasoline during the summer season. Higher blends of ethanol gas like E15 are not typically sold during the summer months due to air quality concerns.
The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to "comply within 90 days" of the request, which has not occurred according to a press release from the Iowa Attorney General's office. The agency's final rules on E15 gasoline needed to be issued in July 2022.
"The Clean Air Act imposes many duties upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Administration. Among those is a mandate to promulgate regulations in response to particular requests from state governors," the lawsuit states. "Iowa’s and Nebraska’s governors, along with the governors of six other states, made the required request last year, triggering the EPA’s duty to promulgate the required regulations in no more than 90 days. That deadline passed more than a year ago."
Gov. Reynolds gave the following statement in a press release.
“The EPA’s ongoing failure to act following our E15 notification more than two years ago is nothing more than a thinly veiled disguise of their disdain towards clean, renewable, American-produced ethanol. The EPA disfavors anything that doesn’t have the word 'electric' in its name. American energy independence, including Iowa’s renewable energies, should be the goal of any presidential administration - especially when it saves Americans money at the gas tank. I applaud Attorney General Bird for bringing this lawsuit holding the federal government accountable. Enough is enough.”
The lawsuit can be read in its entirety here.
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