ENERGY

Oil Industry Wants ‘Ethanol Mandate’ Overturned: U.S. oil companies and refiners asked a federal court to overturn the 2-week-old rule guaranteeing corn-based ethanol a big slice of a new market for anti-smog gasoline. The American Petroleum Institute and the National Petroleum Refiners Assn., the two groups that filed the lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, are also seeking an order preventing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from implementing the regulation. California EPA Secretary James M. Strock also released a copy of his letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asking for her support in reversing the EPA decision. The rule “is not only environmentally indefensible, but would also have unnecessary, harmful economic consequences for California,” Strock wrote.