WASHINGTON – The American Petroleum Institute (API) notified the Environmental Protection Agency last week that it should prepare for a lawsuit if the final 2014 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is not released by the end of November.

The Hill reports that the RFS calls for refiners to mix increasing amounts of biofuel in with conventional gasoline. API, however, says that the demand has become overly stringent, and that it calls for refiners to produce a blend of gasoline that consumers don’t want and can't use.

“EPA’s continual tardiness has real, adverse effects on industry,” API Vice President Harry Ng wrote in a letter to the EPA. “Obligated parties need this information ahead of the compliance year — as the Clean Air Act clearly requires EPA to do — to make operational, logistics, and investment decisions.”

By law, the EPA is required to issue each year’s RFS by Nov. 30 of the previous year. The Hill notes that the agency has routinely missed that deadline — the standard for this year was not released until August.

Proposed 2014 requirements have been under review by the administration since August, but to become law, those regs would need to undergo a public comment period, which could take months.

The Hill writes that draft versions of the 2014 RFS obtained by media outlets reveal that the EPA is planning to significantly scale back its mandate for ethanol by nearly 3 billion gallons.

In a statement sent to The Hill last week, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said that the agency “is only developing a draft proposal.”

“The agency has made no final decision on the proposed renewable fuel standards for 2014,” she added.