U.S. Legislative Updates

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that it will not meet its July 29, 2011 deadline for finalizing its revised national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone. EPA said it intends to issue the final revised standards after the Office of Management and Budget completes its regulatory review that began in early July. This is the fourth time the final rule has been delayed since being proposed in January 2010.


The Obama Administration and automakers have reached an agreement on CAFE standards for automobiles and light trucks for model years 2017-2025. The new standards will be 54.5 miles per gallon for cars by 2025, an approximate five percent annual increase.   The stringency of standards for pick-ups and other light-duty trucks would increase an average of 3.5 percent annually for the first five model years and an average of five percent annually for the last four model years of the program, to account for the unique challenges associated with this class of vehicles.
 

A coalition of oil users that includes NAFA urged Congress to "fully fund and defend" rules in the financial reform law designed to curb excessive oil speculation in oil futures.  The rules are contained in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act passed a year ago.  "These vital regulatory initiatives are in serious jeopardy," read a July 21 letter signed by NAFA and the other members of the Commodity Markets Oversight Coalition.  The letter calls on Congress to resist efforts to delay, water-down, or repeal these reforms, many of which are currently under rulemaking at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).  Once implemented, the coalition says the reforms will "return some measure of stability and confidence to these markets, and return them to their original purpose as a tool for physical hedgers."


Legislation that recently passed Congress to raise the nation’s debt ceiling did not include repeal of the forty-five cent-per-gallon tax credit for ethanol blending.  However, the fate of the ethanol credit, which expires the end of this year, continues to be in doubt.  The debt ceiling agreement established a "super deficit committee" that will identify billions of dollars in additional budget cuts this fall.  It is all but guaranteed the committee will recommend that the $5.4 billion annual ethanol tax credit be allowed to expire at the end of the year.