Good afternoon! This is Akin’s newsletter on climate change policy and regulatory developments, providing information on major climate policy headlines from the past two weeks and forthcoming climate-related events and...more
Navigator CO2 Ventures – backed by prominent investors and a leading energy company – recently scrapped its proposed Heartland Greenway project. The project aimed to build more than 1,300 miles of pipeline across five Midwest...more
The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (“MDNR”) entered into a May 17th Administrative Order on Consent (“AOC”) with the following: The AOC describes each company as follows: The AOC provides that on September 1, 2022,...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on April 28, 2023, that it issued an emergency fuel waiver to allow E15 gasoline -- gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol -- to be sold “during the summer driving...more
The EPA on Friday granted a waiver of its traditional summer ban on the sale of gasoline with 15-percent ethanol — or “E15” — to continue mitigating the disruption of fuel commerce around the globe caused by the conflict in...more
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (“IDNR”) and Siouxland Energy Cooperative (“SEC”) entered into a March 27th Administrative Consent Order (“ACO”) addressing alleged violations of an air permit. See No. 2023-AQ-09....more
When COVID-19 hit, many companies with commercial connections to alcohol wanted to make hand sanitizer. The United States Food and Drug Administration relaxed its regulatory rules and companies began manufacturing a literal...more
The Energy Marketers of America (“EMA”) sent a December 7th letter to the Congressional Leadership addressing the sale of gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol (“E15”)....more
When George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, ethanol was hardly a household name, even though it had been used as a fuel since the early 1800s. Originally...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated and remanded a district court’s noninfringement decision, finding that the district court improperly construed the asserted claims as requiring a dual-fuel system....more
Anything that reduces fuel emissions has to be good for the environment, right? WRONG! The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is facing precisely this seeming anomaly, being asked by the Center for Biological Diversity...more
Summer driving season, and the consequential increased fuel demand, have officially begun. After more than two pandemic years and countless canceled vacations, people are anxious to reinstate their summer travel plans. The...more
On April 29, 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially suspended the ban on sales of gasoline blends with a higher concentration of ethanol. This suspension came two weeks after President Biden’s vow to lift...more
Although ethanol is one of the earliest biotechnologies, it wasn’t until the energy crisis of the 1970s that ethanol was widely used as an additive to gasoline. Back then, concerns about the price of fuel and the impact of...more
The Biden Administration announced on April 12th Executive action to permit year-round sales of E15 motor fuel. The Administration’s decision is described as attempting to: ...more
On November 11, 2021, the University of Iowa announced that its Department of Biology scientists discovered a new type of genetic variation in yeast that can improve the production of ethanol. ...more
The biofuels industry has had a challenging season in the courts. Several weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit that had limited EPA’s ability to grant...more
The Energy Marketers of America (“EMA”) submitted April 19th comments on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) proposed rule for E15 Fuel Dispenser Labeling and Compatibility with Underground Storage...more
This second McGuireWoods alert discussing regulation of hand sanitizer manufacture and distribution addresses new considerations from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published in a June 2020 update to its March 2020...more
Key Takeaways: • What Happened: FDA updated its temporary hand sanitizer production policies to permit use of fuel- or technical-grade ethanol that contains certain impurities up to given limits. • Who’s Impacted:...more
On April 15, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) updated its three hand sanitizer guidance documents to address the use of fuel- and technical-grade ethanol as an active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in hand...more
U.S. Banks Prepare to Seize Energy Assets as Shale Boom Goes Bust - "Major U.S. lenders are preparing to become operators of oil and gas fields across the country for the first time in a generation to avoid losses on loans...more
On 22 November 2019, the European Medicines Agency (“EMA”) published an updated Annex to the European Commission’s Guidelines concerning excipients in the labelling and package leaflet of medicinal products for human use....more
Recently, the North Dakota Corn Utilization Council (NDCUC) announced the implementation of its new program, the North Dakota Unleaded88 Expansion Program, in partnership with the North Dakota Ethanol Council (NDEC). ...more
On August 28, 2019, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (CDT), the Nebraska Ethanol Board (NEB) will host a free workshop for fuel retailers across the state to demonstrate the benefits and ease of offering ethanol-15 (E15) fuel to...more