EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard Questioned; Saudi Arabia Buying California Farmland For Dairy Industry

A coalition last week filed a petition in a U.S appeals court to review the Renewable Fuel Standard. The groups are asking the courts to review the EPA’s RFS volumes for 2014, 2015 and 2016, announced last year after the EPA proposed significant drops in the volumes. The groups representing biofuels manufacturers and corn and sorghum farmers intend to challenge the EPA's authority to set requirements for volumes of biofuels required to be used below levels set by a 2007 law.

A dairy from Saudi Arabia has spent more than $31 million to buy California farmland to supply its business with alfalfa hay. The Almarai Company spent more than $17,000 an acre for the near 1,800 acres of land located in the southeast corner of California. Almarai, which already owns land in Arizona, said the purchase was part of efforts to secure high-quality hay from outside Saudi Arabia, in line with Saudi government policy. Saudi Arabia is phasing out the growing of crops because of the strain such cultivation places on scarce water resources in the desert.