Icahn Says he Will Continue Biofuels Fight Concerning Point of Obligation
By Mario Parker & Jennifer Dlouhy, Bloomberg.
Billionaire Carl Icahn says an oil industry push for structural changes to the U.S. biofuels mandate will persist, even if the Environmental Protection Agency rebuffs requests from refiners to relieve them of the regulatory burden.
Icahn’s remarks came as convenience store owners took the fight to federal court and mark the investor’s first public comments since an Aug. 18 open letter announcing his departure as a special regulatory adviser to President Donald Trump.
Independent oil refiners are convinced the design of the Renewable Fuel Standard program is flawed and have a number of tools to pursue changes, including litigation, Icahn said.
That includes a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the Small Retailers Coalition, a trade group representing about 200 convenience store owners and independent fuel retailers. The group is challenging the EPA’s latest slate of annual biofuel quotas, arguing the requirements give an advantage to big refiners and truck stops at their expense.