EPA has finally issued comments relative to the situation with small refinery exemptions (SREs) in the wake of the 10th Circuit Court ruling, which invalidated three SREs issued for the 2016 compliance year.
“EPA does not intend to unilaterally revisit or rescind any previously granted small refinery exemptions issued for prior compliance years,” the agency said as it announced other fuel-related actions. “As noted in the temporary policy on COVID-19 Implications for EPA's Enforcement and Assurance Program, issued yesterday (March 26), EPA is focused on protecting our employees and ensuring continued protection of public health and the environment from acute or imminent threats during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Given that stance, EPA said that investigating and initiating enforcement actions against prior SRE recipients “is a low priority for the agency.”
EPA further said it “intends to develop an appropriate implementation and enforcement response to the 10th Circuit’s decision in RFA v. EPA once appeals have been resolved and the court’s mandate has been issued.”
On the 2019 compliance deadline of March 31 for obligated parties to demonstrate compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), EPA said, “In a forthcoming action, EPA intends to extend the RFS compliance date for small refineries to provide them with additional flexibility.”
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