The legal action comes at the behest
The Environmental Protection Agency used scientifically flawed methods in a new regulation that could harm ethanol production, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt’s Office said this week, announcing that the state’s top lawyer is now asking a federal court to review the agency’s requirement.
The legal action comes at the behest of a state association of ethanol processors.
Schmidt argues the EPA implemented its 2014 edition of the Motor Vehicle Emissions Simulator (MOVES) — which helps estimate pollution from cars and trucks — without allowing states to comment or review the changes. The attorney general also says an EPA-commissioned fuel study to develop MOVES used a flawed methodology.
“Ethanol production is an important industry for Kansas and grain agriculture specifically,” Schmidt said in a statement. “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 EPA, in a statement to The Topeka Capital-Journal, said it hadn’t yet received the legal complaint and couldn’t comment on it. But it also defended MOVES.