Oil-and-gas lobby might take ethanol fight to Supreme Court

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is "strongly considering" asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case regarding sales of a high-ethanol fuel blend, API Group Downstream Director Bob Greco said Tuesday. The Supreme Court move would represent another escalation in API’s campaign to roll back rules and court decisions vital to the biofuels industry. Greco said API would need to file a petition for a rehearing by mid-April. In question is a U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruling that upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to allow E15 fuel into the marketplace.
EPA and the biofuels industry have said the fuel blend — which contains 15 percent ethanol, rather than the standard 10 percent — is safe for cars made in 2001 or later. But API and automakers contend E15 damages cars. API floated the Supreme Court option during a Tuesday press call announcing research that it and automakers funded showing E15 harms cars. The E15 court case is one part of the lobby group's congressional and legal battles to block E15 sales and to repeal a biofuel-blending mandate...more