A coalition of biofuel and farm groups on Nov. 27 released a statement expressing disappointment in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' Nov. 22 decision remanding to the U.S. EPA six small refinery exemption (SRE) requests. The coalition, which includes the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy, American Coalition for Ethanol and National Farmers Union, said it will continue to defend the Renewable Fuel Standard.  

Six small refineries in 2022 filed petitions with the court challenging the EPA’s denial of their SRE petitions. The agency in December 2021 proposed to deny more than 60 SRE petitions filed by small refineries seeking exemptions from RFS blending requirements for one or more compliance years between 2016 and 2021. At that time, the EPA said its decision to deny those SREs was based on results from its review of the pending SRE petitions and supporting information, its legal, technical and policy analysis of the Clean Air Act provisions related to small refineries, and its application of the holding of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Renewable Fuels Association et al. v. EPA. The proposed denials were finalized in 2022.

In its ruling, the court said the petitioners’ SREs were denied by the EPA using a “novel CAA interpretation and economic theory that the agency published in December 2021.” The court concluded that the denials were “impermissibly retroactive,” “contrary to law,” and “counter to the record evidence.” 

“While we are disappointed by this decision, we will continue to vigilantly defend the Renewable Fuel Standard and fight against the illegal abuse of small refinery exemptions,” the RFA, Growth Energy, ACE and NFU said in their statement. “As other Federal courts have determined, the RFS does not impose an economic burden on oil refiners because any compliance costs are passed down the supply chain. All refiners—regardless of their size or location—face equitable RFS obligations, and all of them pass through their costs to comply. This lawsuit was never really about purported economic hardship; rather, it was about a handful of entrenched oil refineries doing everything they can to dodge their legal obligations to blend renewable fuels and block consumer access to lower-cost, lower-carbon options at the pump.”