The U.S. Supreme Court April 27 will hear refiners' appeal of the Tenth Circuit Court ruling that invalidated three small refinery exemptions (SREs). The decision relates to the refiners' appeal of the ruling that said in order to be granted SREs, the refiners needed to have obtained them continuously from 2010-forward.
EPA recently came out in favor of the court ruling and said that it will not act on the pending SREs until after the Supreme Court issues its decision on the matter.
EPA data as of late-February showed 20 so-called “gap year” SREs were pending covering 2011-2018 compliance years, with another 30 pending for the 2019 compliance year and 16 for the 2020 compliance year.
Expectations are if the Supreme Court sides with the Tenth Circuit ruling, it would dramatically reduce the granting of SREs moving forward.