Lawsuit says US environmental agency ignores harm of biofuel production

The US biofuel program is likely killing endangered species and harming the environment in a way that negates its benefits, but the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is largely ignoring those problems, a new federal lawsuit charges.

The suit alleges the EPA failed to consider impacts on endangered species, as is required by law, when it set new rules that will expand biofuel use nationwide during the next three years, said Brett Hartl, government affairs director with the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), which brought the litigation.

The agency has twice ignored court orders to study the impacts and is likely dodging the requirements because ethanol production “props up” the corn industry, which has a politically powerful lobby, Hartl added.

“The Biden administration failed to even modestly reform this boondoggle and crumbled again in the face of political pressure from powerful special interests,” Hartl said. “Our streams and rivers will choke with more pollution and coastal dead zones will continue to expand.”