Iowa AG Brenna Bird sues EPA over ethanol rules, saying it 'dragged its feet' on E15 sales

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is suing the Environmental Protection Agency, as Iowa and Nebraska try to force the agency to issue final rules allowing the year-round sale of gasoline blended with 15% ethanol.

The Republican attorney general's lawsuit, filed in Iowa federal court, seeks to have the EPA issue regulations allowing E-15 gasoline to be sold during the summer.

Gov. Kim Reynolds and several other Midwestern governors requested last year that E-15 be sold during the summer — which triggered a 90-day deadline for issuing regulations that the states say the EPA did not follow.

"The Biden administration has dragged its feet long enough,” Bird said in a statement.

The EPA passed emergency waivers both last year and this summer allowing for the continued sale of E-15, which is gasoline blended with 15% ethanol, in Midwestern states. Those waivers were widely praised by Iowa leaders, though they also criticized the decision as coming late.

E-15 regulations: Environmental Protection Agency takes emergency action making ethanol gas available this summer

In March, the EPA proposed a rule allowing year-round sales of E-15 in Iowa and seven other states, starting in 2024. Elected officials in the Hawkeye State welcomed the plan but criticized it for not taking effect this summer.

Reynolds, in a statement issued minutes after Bird announced the lawsuit Monday, expressed support for the lawsuit and criticized the agency.

"The EPA’s ongoing failure to act following our E-15 notification more than two years ago is nothing more than a thinly veiled disguise of their disdain towards clean, renewable, American-produced ethanol," Reynolds said. "The EPA disfavors anything that doesn’t have the word 'electric' in its name."

E-15 sales are restricted in some states over the summer to meet federal clean air standards. Ethanol industry groups and advocates criticize the standards as outdated.

Under current regulations, Bird and Reynolds say, limitations on E-15 are more stringent than those on gasoline blended with 10% alcohol during the summer.

The EPA declined to comment on pending litigation.

Iowa and Nebraska's lawsuit earned praise from the Renewable Fuels Association, whose president and CEO Geoff Cooper said in a statement he hopes the litigation will "break the logjam and cause EPA to complete the process as soon as possible."

The group sent a letter to Regan last week urging the EPA to finalize its regulations.

Galen Bacharier covers politics for the Register. Reach him at gbacharier@registermedia.com or (573) 219-7440, and follow him on Twitter @galenbacharier.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa AG sues EPA, pressing for rules to expand summer ethanol sales