The U.S. EPA released updated small refinery exemption (SRE) data on July 15, reporting that six SRE petitions have been withdrawn in the past month. There are now 64 SRE petitions pending, down from 70 in June.

One SRE petition was withdrawn for each of the Renewable Fuel Standard compliance years 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019. No other changes were made to the EPA’s online SRE dashboard.

The 64 currently pending SRE petitions include 18 for compliance year 2020, 31 for compliance year 2019, three for compliance year 2018, one for compliance year 2017, two for compliance year 2016, two for compliance year 2015, three for compliance year 2014, two for compliance year 2013, one for compliance year 2012 and one for compliance year 2011.

The withdrawal of the six “gap year” SRE petitions is likely in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 25 reversal of a portion of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeal’s Jan. 20, 2020, decision on SREs. The Supreme Court ruled that the EPA can extend SREs to small refineries whose earlier, temporary exemptions had lapsed. Following the lower court’s ruling in early 2020, several small refineries had filed “gap year” SRE petitions in an effort to create a continuous string of exemptions that would allow the refinery to remain eligible for future exemptions.