Sierra Club Threatens to Sue EPA Over Clean Air Act Violations

by Lauren Tyler (NGT News) The Sierra Club has filed a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its failure to conduct the required environmental impact analysis on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), effectively violating Section 204 of the Clean Air Act.

According to the Sierra Club, the EPA is more than three years overdue in its last review of impacts for Congress and six years overdue on its air quality impact analysis. Both are necessary to determine the extent of the RFS program’s adverse air quality impacts and to inform the EPA in its annual setting of renewable fuels volumes.

A recent investigation by the EPA’s inspector general found that the agency had failed to meet these critical statutory deadlines. In response, the EPA promised to complete the Triennial Report by Dec. 31 and the anti-backsliding air quality study by Sept. 30, 2024 – 15 years after the law required the study to be completed.

Given that ethanol production has skyrocketed in recent years and the loss of grasslands is expected to continue under the current RFS mandates, the Sierra Club finds the EPA’s continuing establishment of RFS standards without the information on environmental and air quality impacts to be particularly troubling.

The Sierra Club plans to file the lawsuit in 60 days. Click here to read the notice of intent to sue. READ MORE