EPA’s “proposed adjudication” of 65 pending small-refiner exemption requests could deny virtually all such requests — now and in the future.
Since the Trump Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sharply expanded their post-2016 use, Small Refinery Exemptions (SREs) have undercut renewable fuel blending mandates by exempting over 4 billion gallons of motor fuels from acquiring RINs credits under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). In June 2021, the Supreme Court (reviewing a Tenth Circuit decision) ruled that EPA lacked “clear authority” under the RFS Program to limit that expansion by requiring “continuous” rather than “stand-alone” exemptions (HollyFrontierCheyenne v. EPA (114 S.Ct. 2172)).
BioCycle’s analysis of this ruling concluded it nevertheless left the Biden EPA numerous ways to deny such exemptions. This is partly because the Justices overturned only one of the three grounds for denial unanimously adopted by the Tenth Circuit, and partly because the Court majority found continuous and stand-alone approaches “equally plausible” on their face.
On December 7, 2021 the Biden EPA announced a 63-page “proposed adjudication” that would radically change the RINs playing field by denying not only all 65 pending SRE petitions, but virtually all future SRE requests. The announcement attracted little attention because it was buried in a large Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs) notice prescribing the amounts of renewable fuel that refiners must blend into diesel fuels or gasoline during 2020-22. It’s worth drilling down on as the outcome directly impacts the renewable natural gas (RNG) marketplace. More >>