Yesterday, the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, the American Coalition for Ethanol and National Farmers Union filed a motion to intervene in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to deny 69 petitions from refineries seeking small refinery exemptions (SREs) from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program for one or more of the compliance years between 2016 and 2021.
“EPA’s decision in June to deny 69 SRE petitions helped strengthen U.S. energy security, protect the climate, and deliver relief at the pump during a period of record high gas prices,” the biofuel and ag coalition said. “Now, certain refiners want to reverse this process and turn back the clock to an era of gross mismanagement and abuse of the SRE provisions of the RFS program. For far too long, many refiners got away with dodging their obligations to blend lower-carbon biofuel into the fuel supply. EPA’s denial of these SRE petitions provides a clean slate to get the RFS back on track as we head into a new era for this important program. Holding refiners accountable will ensure lower prices and cleaner options at the pump for American families.”
Background
On June 3, 2022, concurrent with its final rulemaking to set the volumes for the 2020, 2021 and 2022 renewable volume obligations, EPA announced the denial of 69 petitions from refineries seeking exemptions from the RFS program for one or more compliance years between 2016 and 2021. Along with the April 2022 denial of petitions for RFS SREs, these denials apply EPA’s current interpretation of the Clean Air Act SRE provisions, consistent with a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit holding in Renewable Fuels Association et al. v. EPA.
