WASHINGTON D.C. — On Friday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) acted on 16 individual SRE petitions from eight refineries seeking an exemption from their Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) obligations for compliance years 2021–2024.
In consultation with the Department of Energy (DOE), EPA reviewed and considered information submitted by each petitioning small refinery. EPA then evaluated each SRE petition consistent with the Clean Air Act and case law. After carefully reviewing all information, EPA is granting full exemptions to two petitions, granting partial exemptions to 12 petitions, and denying two petitions. Concurrent with issuing these decisions, EPA is updating the SRE website to reflect these decisions on the 16 small refineries. With most of the old petitions now cleared, EPA is committed to working with DOE to address new petitions as quickly as possible and within the 90-day statutory review period, a stark contrast from the Biden-Harris Administration which did not act on a single one.
The National Oilseed Processors Association (NOPA) and the American Soybean Association (ASA) expressed appreciation to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for continuing efforts to address the backlog of small refinery exemption (SRE) petitions that the agency inherited. ASA and NOPA thank the EPA for returning retired RINs for SRE petitions prior to 2023 and continues to urge EPA to ensure all active RINs are reallocated into renewable volume obligations (RVOs) moving forward.
“Another 500+ million RINs of lost demand is the last thing our soybean farmers and processors need right now. The time has come to finalize the RVOs with full reallocation of these eroded gallons, before the end of the calendar year to provide market certainty. We thank the administration for their commitment to supporting U.S. agriculture through strong biofuels policy,” said NOPA President and CEO Devin Mogler and ASA CEO Stephen Censky.
NOPA and ASA strongly support 100% reallocation of exempted renewable fuel volumes as EPA continues to finalize 2026-2027 RVOs and the supplemental rule addressing the treatment of SREs. Reallocating SRE volumes is critical to maintaining the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard and protecting demand for domestically produced biofuels and soybean oil.
Read more from the EPA’s announcement here: https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-issues-additional-decisions-small-refinery-exemptions
