Articles in Federal Litigation
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Biofuels’s Montagues and Capulets were at it again last week — with a flurry of press releases about court decisions and commercial timelines regarding their respective isbutanol technologies.
At the heart …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …The stock has not recovered much — but it’s remarkable the progress the company has made, all the same. Analysts are now expecting the company to bring its first production …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …In Delaware, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware entered a final judgment in favor of Gevo and against Butamax Advanced Biofuels, LLC (Butamax), a 50/50 joint …
by Andrew Childers (Bloomberg BNA) The Environmental Protection Agency will voluntarily reconsider the cellulosic ethanol blending requirement for 2011, the agency told a federal appellate court in an April 3 motion (American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers v. …
by David Shephardson (Detroit News) Major automakers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to approve a higher blend of ethanol for vehicles from 2001 and newer.
The …
by Jon LeSage (AutoBlogGreen) Ethanol advocates are continuing to throw down the gauntlet with Big Oil. Jabs have been thrown through satire and blogging – now the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) is throwing a hook by going after ConocoPhillips, …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …To Gevo, Butamax we now attend,
And their legal record, we now amend.
The Federal judge overseeing the complex patent infringement litigation between Gevo and Butamax has issued a series of pre-trial …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Is ConocoPhillips unlawfully attempting to limit competition in the fuels marketplace? We’ll find out soon.
In Florida, Biofuels Digest filed an antitrust violation complaint against ConocoPhillips with the US Department of …
by Col. Bill Holmberg (ret.) (American Council On Renewable Energy) “Up with octane, down with aromatics, and embrace the needs of people and nature,” says ACORE’s legendary biomass guru. But less freak-out, more reach-out is …
(Environmental Protection Agency) Owner of “Clean Green Fuel” falsely claimed his company produced 23 million gallons of renewable fuel
U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr. sentenced Rodney R. Hailey, of Perry Hall, Md., today to …
by Ben Goad (The Hill Reg Watch) A coalition of industry groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday to reconsider a lower court’s finding in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011 decision to …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In a fiery address at the National Ethanol Conference, RFA chief Bob Dinneen rallies his troops.
…He derided industry opponents as “the angry birds at the National Chicken Council, the mad …
(25 x ’25) … A federal court decision last week that set aside EPA’s volumetric requirement for cellulosic biofuel under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) was excessively characterized this week by the oil industry and …
(National Algae Association) Is the government’s commitment to alternative fuels being stymied by the American Petroleum Institute, or is the Department of Energy stymying the commitment all by itself?
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the …
(American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers/PR NewsWire/Yahoo!) In a decision that questions the motivation of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit today vacated EPA’s 2012 cellulosic biofuel mandate, concluding that its biased forecast was in ‘excess …
by Pete Bigelow (AOL Autos) Legislation could widen use of E15 fuel blend, which automakers say can corrode your engine
Thanks to the fiscal cliff bill signed into law last week, a blend of fuel that …
(American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers/PR NewsWire) The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today to waive the 2012 cellulosic biofuel mandate, citing a lack of domestic supply available …
by Erin Voegele (Ethanol Producer Magazine) On Dec. 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed a lawsuit filed by the American Petroleum Institute against the U.S. EPA. The …
by Andrew Hay (Reuters) A coalition of seven eastern states led by New York plans to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to issue new guidelines to curb methane emissions, a greenhouse gas …
by Valerie Volcovici (Chicago Tribune/Reuters) A policy reform group plans to issue a notice on Wednesday informing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that it will file a lawsuit to force the agency to use federal …
by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) The American Petroleum Institute filed a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Nov. 26 against the U.S. EPA for its decision to mandate the …
(US Department of Energy) The Alternative Fuels Data Center (AFDC) provides information, data, and tools to help fleets and other transportation decisions makers find ways to reduce petroleum consumption through the use of alternative and …
by Rory Carroll (Reuters) California attorneys advocating for a program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fuels came under stern questioning from a three-judge panel on Tuesday (October f16, 2012), in a case that threatens …
by Howard Mintz (Mercury News) Having fended off a challenge to groundbreaking emissions standards for new cars, California now finds itself in a legal tug-of-war to preserve some of its unprecedented regulations to reduce greenhouse …
by Ned Stowe (Environmental and Energy Study Institute) In the wake of the devastating heat wave and drought which covered much of the United States this year, it has become clear that there will be less …
(Renewable Fuels Association) Seven biofuel organizations today filed an intervenors brief in the American Petroleum Institute case against the Environmental Protection Agency challenging the 2012 cellulosic and advanced biofuel requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard. …
by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com) Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), has slammed ethanol saying it opposes the use of E15 based on scientific evidence that it causes corrosion with incompatible parts.
…The court has ruled in favor of …
by Robert Pore (The Grand Island Independent) Higher ethanol blend could be used by nearly two-thirds of vehicles on road
On Friday, the U.S. Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit sided with the Environmental …
by Holly Jessen (Ethanol Producer Magazine) A little more than a month after a temporary court order prohibited Gevo from selling bio-isobutanol into the automotive fuels market, the company announced Aug. 13 that the order …
(Gevo/Reuters) Gevo, Inc. has been awarded an additional patent covering further improvements in the efficiency of bio-based production of isobutanol. The new patent extends Gevo’s lead over competitors in technological innovations that enable commercially viable …
(Butamax(TM)/PR NewsWire) Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels, LLC, the biobutanol technology leader, commented on the lawsuit filed by Gevo today alleging patent infringement of Gevo patent number 8,232,089.
“The Gevo ’089 patent adds no new point of novelty …
by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) Criminal proceedings are underway against Jeffrey David Gunselman, former CEO of Texas-based Absolute Fuels, in U.S. District Court as Judge Sam Cummings filed an official complaint last week authorizing Gunselman’s …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Washington, Brent Erickson, executive vice president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization’s (BIO) Industrial & Environmental Section, said, “Petroleum refining industry organizations are engaging in a misguided and misleading anti-Renewable …
by Growth Energy/Renewable Fuels Association (Ethanol Producer Magazine) …(T)he U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a petition by the Chicken Council challenging the U.S. EPA rulemaking on the renewable fuel …
by Timothy B. Wheeler (Baltimore Sun) A federal jury convicted a Perry Hall man Monday of wire fraud and money laundering for selling $9 million worth of bogus biodiesel credits to commodities brokers and oil companies …
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) Six biofuel industry organizations have jointly petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to intervene in a lawsuit filed by the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers …
by Timothy B. Wheeler (The Baltimore Sun) Biodiesel producers told a congressional panel Wednesday that they’re struggling to stay afloat in the aftermath of fraud cases uncovered in Baltimore and Texas, and a spokesman for petroleum …
by Susanne Retka Schill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The latest chapter is near closure on the butanol patent dispute between Gevo Inc. and Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC. In an opinion filed June 19, U.S. District Judge Sue Robinson denied Butamax’s …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Declining ethanol margins and plant idlings; ethanol price gloom; controversy over RFS2 targets. Despair? Bah! It all spells “opportunity” for the intrepid ethanolista.
This week in biofuels, two storylines that …
(Bloomberg BusinessWeek) A joint venture between DuPont Co. (DD) (DD) and BP Plc (BP/) won a court order temporarily preventing a competing biofuel company from trying to sell isobutanol produced at a plant that came online last …
by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) The U.S. EPA officially denied the petroleum industry’s request to retroactively waive the 2011 cellulosic biofuel volume requirements under the renewable fuel standard (RFS) on May 22, noting that …
by Kris Bevill (Ethanol Producer Magazine) …API has legally challenged every step of the U.S. EPA’s approval of E15, claiming that more scientific research should be completed before it is allowed to be used in …
by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) The U.S. EPA issued a Notice of Violation to Houston-based Green Diesel LLC April 30 for generating more than 60 million invalid biomass-based diesel (D-Code 4) renewable identification numbers (RINs) …
by David Shaffer (Star Tribune) A new blend of ethanol and gasoline may soon show up at the gas station pumps — along with mixed messages on whether it’s safe to put it in your …
by Erin Voegele (Biodiesel Magazine) The U.S. EPA has announced the amount of administrative settlements levied against 30 obligated parties and renewable fuel exporters due to the purchase of invalid biodiesel renewable identification numbers (RINs) …
By Karen Gullo and Lynn Doan (Bloomberg) California won temporary reinstatement of its low-carbon fuel standard, which was blocked last year by a federal judge.
The U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco yesterday granted a request by California officials to …
by Ayesha Rascoe (Reuters) * Company registered with EPA sold fake credits
* Exxon, Shell, others cited for using invalid credits
* Trading firm says EPA did not do due diligence
A trading company ensnared in the fallout …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) Here’s a 2-Minute Guide to all the Gevo and Butamax hollerin’, and how to separate the alcohol from the folderol.
In case it has escaped your attention, Butamax is suing Gevo …
(Platts) Six renewable fuel trade associations have filed a motion in federal court to intervene in support of the US Environmental Protection Agency, which is being sued by a major oil and gas trade group …
A US energy industry group on Monday said it has filed suit to challenge the federal government’s mandate for US cellulosic ethanol consumption, charging that it is unrealistic and constitutes an illegitimate tax.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) said that it filed …
(Butamax/iStockAnalyst.com) Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels, LLC, the biobutanol technology leader, announced today that the Company filed a new lawsuit against Gevo, Inc. for infringing the recently awarded Butamax™ patent8,129,162.
The patent covers recombinant KARI enzymes which perform …
(PR NewsWire/Butamax) Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels, LLC, the leading biobutanol technology company, commented on two rulings issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in response to Gevo’s repeated requests to reexamine Butamax Patent 7,851,188 …
(Renewable Fuels Association) A coalition of national ethanol groups, along with California and Midwest farming groups, filed a brief urging the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a court-ordered injunction on the California …
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) …(Renewable Fuels Association president and CEO Bob) Dinneen says the environmental groups’ challenge to the RFS was much broader based than the poultry groups’ challenge, including that EPA had not taken into …
by Katherine Yung (Detroit Free Press) After a lengthy delay, construction of what could be the nation’s first large-scale wood-to-ethanol plant in the country is to start this year in Michigan’s eastern Upper Peninsula.
If successful, …
(Equipment World) States considering a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) will be watching the federal 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to see if it will overturn a lower court’s decision that California’s LCFS is unconstitutional.
The appellate court …
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In California, Judge Lawrence J. O’Neill denied the California Air Resources Board’s (CARB) motion to stay the decision he issued on December 29, 2011 that had halted the enforcement of …
by Jim Lane and Todd Guerrero (Biofuels Digest/Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.) Us federal judge rules that California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard interferes with the “maintenance of a national economic union unfettered by state-imposed limitations on …
(WLNS/AP) Critics of a refinery planned for the Upper Peninsula have filed a second lawsuit against the project.
Larry Klein and the Sierra Club claim the U.S. Energy Department failed to follow federal environmental law when …
by Juliet Eilperin (The Washington Post) Europe’s highest court ruled Wednesday that the European Union has the legal right to force foreign airlines to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions, a decision that could boost …
by Megan Sapp (Biofuels Digest) In Colorado, Gevo Inc. announced the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is reconsidering a patent issued in August to Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC for a fuel additive. Gevo claims that, “substantial …
(Platts) The US Environmental Protection Agency may end up deeming more biodiesel renewable identification numbers (RINs) as invalid following federal investigations into two companies that allegedly sold RINS without producing the appropriate volumes of biodiesel, …
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a case brought by petroleum interests against the Environmental Protection Agency over the expanded Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2).
The petition made by the National Petrochemical …
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) Groups representing small engine, automakers and marine manufacturers announced a formal legal challenge to regulations and labeling proposed for the use of 15% ethanol blends (E15) in older model vehicles.
The Outdoor Power Equipment Institute …
(Butamax) Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels, LLC today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has granted patent number 7,993,889, adding another pioneering patent to its biobutanol intellectual property portfolio. This patent protects foundational …
by Kathleen Ryan (Public News Service) The search for ethanol is devastating one of America’s vanishing ecosystems. That’s the claim in a new lawsuit filed by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). It accuses the U.S. Environmental …
(BIO tech NOW) BIO and government make case for allowing interim planting of genetically biotech beets until APHIS completes its environmental impact statement
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has issued a …
by Robert Pirog (Congressional Research Service) …These proposals included repeal of the enhanced oil recovery and marginal well tax credits, repeal of the expensing of intangible drilling costs, repeal of the deduction for tertiary injectants, …
by Jenny Mandel (New York Times/Greenwire) An appeals court rejected a challenge today (December 21, 2010) by petroleum industry groups to U.S. EPA’s biodiesel blending requirements, in a move affirming the agency’s implementation of the renewable fuel …
by Steve Gelsi and Jeffry Bartash (MarketWatch) Blend of 15% ethanol may cause problems, group warns
A trade group that includes automotive giants Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co. has joined forces with other vehicle and …
(Bloomberg/AP) Environmentalists sued Michigan regulators Tuesday over an air quality permit issued for a planned refinery in the Upper Peninsula that will produce ethanol fuel from wood chips.
The Sierra Club lawsuit contends the Department of Natural …
by Alan Anderson (Newsvine) The ruling by Judge Jeffrey White on Nov. 30 ordering that the current rootstock for producing Roundup Ready sugar beet seeds be removed from the ground should be made into a positive. …
by Philip Brasher (Des Moines Register) The oil industry is joining with food manufacturers, livestock producers and fast-food restaurants in an effort to block an increase in the amount of ethanol that can be added …
by Dr. Mark Edwards (Algae Industry Magazine) There are several firms in the algae industry engaged in genetic engineering, (GE), with the intention of patenting designer algal strains. Some organizations have filed patents for naturally occurring …
Global Biofuels Alliance, Inc. (GBA), established in 2010, is a new nonprofit trade association representing small to midsize biofuels producers, traders, marketers, distributors, and other interested biofuels parties. The GBA’s formation was prompted by the …
(Friends of the Earth) A report released today by Friends of the Earth demonstrates the ways in which the biofuels industry influences legislation through lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions.
The report, entitled “Buying Bills: How the Biofuels …
by Sandra Hansen (Star-Herald) According to the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California, the current crop of Roundup Ready sugar beets may be harvested and processed. Judge Jeffrey White on Friday, Aug. 13, denied …
byGen. Wesley K. Clark (Ret.) (New York Times) Letter to Editor: …The consequences include not only huge environmental risks, but a $300 billion-a-year drain from our economy to pay for imported petroleum.
Growth Energy’s Fueling Freedom …
by Joanna Schroeder (DomesticFuel.com) Earlier this year Big Oil sued the EPA over the biodiesel requirement in the RFS2. Today (May 25, 2010), the Clean Air Task Force, on behalf of environmental groups including Friends …
Growth Energy, the coalition of US ethanol supporters, announced today that it has filed papers to intervene on behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in a lawsuit filed against EPA by the petroleum …
by Cindy Zimmerman (DomesticFuel.com) …Both the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association (NPRA) filed the lawsuit Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia challenging …
by Light and Medium Truck (Transport Topics Online) A group including motor carriers, businesses, several members of Congress and a conservative public interest legal foundation has filed a lawsuit in federal appeals court challenging the …
