The waiver requests from Perry and Rell, in granted, would therefore extend to the entire national requirement after January 1, 2009. The senators’ contributed isn’t so much legislative as communicating their sentiment that Johnson out to act on his authority under CAA sec. 211(o)(7). Also, since Congressional oversight extends to the EPA, their request probably carries a little more weight than a waiver request coming from an individual state. See the denial of California’s waiver for a CAFE exemption.

Govs. Perry and Rell have requested waivers as is their right under the currently-enforced 2005 law. The Senators are just cheerleading at this point and even if it were Jan 1, 2009 they still wouldn’t have any say in the matter unless they passed a law or were blending gasoline for retail sale in their spare time.

Either way, I think we can all agree that this was a stupid, stupid law passed by shortsighted, pandering, imbeciles.

see, EISA 2007, Sec. 210 (c): “Effective Date- The amendments made by this title to section 211(o) of the Clean Air Act shall take effect January 1, 2009, except that the Administrator shall promulgate regulations to carry out such amendments not later than 1 year after the enactment of this Act.”

Except, of course, as you pointed out, “that for calendar year 2008, the number `9.0′ shall be substituted for the number `5.4′ in the table in section 211(o)(2)(B) and in the corresponding rules promulgated to carry out those provisions.”

Therefore, amendments to the waiver provision in the Clean Air Act do not affect the 2008 doubling. The senators are indeed up to speed on the law, which is they object specifically to the RFS extension - its the only part of the RFS that the EPA can waive.

(2) Until January 1, 2009, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency shall implement section 211(o) of the Clean Air Act and the rules promulgated under that section in accordance with the provisions of that section as in effect before the enactment of this Act and in accordance with the rules promulgated before the enactment of this Act, except that for calendar year 2008, the number `9.0′ shall be substituted for the number `5.4′ in the table in section 211(o)(2)(B) and in the corresponding rules promulgated to carry out those provisions. The Administrator is authorized to take such other actions as may be necessary to carry out this paragraph notwithstanding any other provision of law.

And from the EPA’s Feb 2008 EPA Ruling:

On November 27, 2007, EPA published a Notice in the Federal
Register announcing a renewable fuel standard for 2008 of 4.66%. This
standard was designed to result in the use of 5.4 billion gallons of
renewable fuel in 2008, as required by CAA section 211(o) at the time
EPA published the standard. On December 19, 2007, President Bush signed
into law the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA),
which, among other things, amended CAA section 211(o) to
require the use of 9.0 billion gallons of renewable fuel in 2008.
Today’s Notice announces the recalculated standard for 2008, based on
the volume of renewable fuel that amended section 211(o) now requires.

I get the sense that the Senators are up to speed on the law.

see here: http://www.senate.gov/~hutchison/pr050208b.html

The senators were specifically objecting to the RFS extension, which doesn’t take effect until January 2009. Though both were passed as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, only the RFS extension is subject to regulatory restructuring, and only then because it hasn’t taken effect yet.

http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-AIR/2008/February/Day-14/a679.htm