EPA Turns Down Texas's Request To Lower Biofuels Levels

August 7, 2008 1:56 p.m. EST

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday that they had decided to deny a request from the state of Texas to reduce the levels of biofuels required to be blended into the nation's fuel supply.

EPA officials will keep the current standards of renewable fuels required to be blended into fuels under the nationwide Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). Those levels are 9 billion gallons of renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel in 2008 and 11.1 billion gallons in 2009, EPA officials said in an emailed statement Thursday.

"After reviewing the facts, it was clear this request did not meet the criteria in the law," EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson, said in the statement.

He added that the "RFS remains an important tool" in the agency's ongoing efforts to reduce America 's greenhouse gas emissions and lessen its dependence on foreign oil.

The EPA can waive national RFS if it would cause "severe harm" to the economy or the environment. The state of Texas had argued, unsuccessfully, that the RFS mandate was causing severe economic harm to its economy, an allegation the EPA said it had found no evidence to support.

This was the first request for a waiver and the request elicited more than 15,000 public comments. Americans consume more than 600 billion gallons of fuel annually.