At least 58 retroactive small refinery exemption (SRE) requests have been received by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to the latest update from the agency.
The push by refiners for the retroactive “gap-year” exemptions stems from a 10th Circuit Court ruling that held they are only eligible for future SREs, hardship exemptions from Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) blending requirements, if they have maintained a continuous string of the waivers since 2011. The previous update on June 18 listed 52 requests for compliance years 2011 through 2018. Separately, refiners have submitted another 27 waiver applications for the 2019 compliance year and one for 2020.
Biofuel proponents including the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and National Biodiesel Board (NBB) have criticized the gap-year requests as an effort to circumvent the 10th Circuit ruling and have argued EPA policy and the court decision compel the agency to reject the petitions.
Controversy over the gap-year requests has led lawmakers to hold up the Senate confirmation of an EPA official and delayed EPA's proposal setting RFS 2021 blending volumes for biofuel and 2022 mandates for biodiesel.
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