Kansas Corn Supports AG Schmidt’s Challenge to Faulty EPA Ethanol Emissions Model

The Kansas Corn Growers Association supports the efforts of Kansas Attorney Derek Schmidt as his office filed a lawsuit asking a federal appeals court to reject new EPA regulations that would force states to use a faulty method to measure emissions from ethanol-blended fuels. The new methodology is based on flawed science and would discourage the use of ethanol fuels.  The Energy Future Coalition, Urban Air Initiative and Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning joined Kansas in challenging EPA’s “MOVES2014” rule regulating vehicle emissions.

The Kansas Corn Growers Association as well as the Kansas Association of Ethanol Processors had asked Attorney General Schmidt to take action on the matter.

“EPA’s MOVES2014 model will hurt the ethanol industry and the farmers who provide grain for ethanol plants,” KCGA CEO Greg Krissek said. “This MOVES2014 model is not based on sound science and does not reflect ethanol’s positive benefits to the environment.  It artificially and erroneously skews the analysis of emissions effects of ethanol-blended fuels.”

From the Kansas Attorney General’s news release:
The lawsuit, filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, asks the court to reject new EPA regulations that will require states to immediately begin using the MOVES2014 model in their State Implementation Plans (SIPs) for controlling pollutants governed by national air quality standards. By implementing the MOVES2014 model without the opportunity for review and comment by the states and affected parties, the EPA forces states to measure emissions from ethanol-blended fuels in a way that incorrectly predicts higher levels of pollution.

The MOVES2014 model is based on an EPA-commissioned fuel study that purports to analyze the emissions effects of different fuel parameters, including ethanol content, while artificially and unnecessarily holding other fuel parameters constant. This so-called “match-blending” methodology unfairly targets ethanol and assigns disproportionate negative emissions effects. The dictated use of this model effectively blocks states from encouraging the use of ethanol as part of their clean air plans.

“Ethanol production is an important industry for Kansas and grain agriculture specifically,” Schmidt said.  “EPA’s requirement that states use this faulty model was unlawfully adopted without notice and opportunity for comment. This is an example of the EPA imposing its will on the states rather than working cooperatively toward the shared goal of cleaner air. We are asking that this model be rejected and replaced with a model that more accurately reflects the true emission effects of ethanol.

The case is State of Kansas, et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, et al., in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, the Energy Future Coalition, and the Urban Air Initiative, Inc. joined Schmidt in filing the case.