Small refineries ask Trump for ‘seat at the table’ in RFS negotiations
April 8, 2025
BY Erin Voegele
A group of small refineries on April 4 sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging him “to send the multi-national oil and biofuels companies back to the drawing board to come up with a biofuels policy that does no harm.”
The letter, signed by representatives of American Refining Group Inc., Hunt Refining Co., Calumet Inc., Par Pacific Holdings Inc., Ergon Inc., Placid Refining Co. LLC, San Joaquin Refining Co. Inc and The San Antionio Refinery LLC, references reports that oil and biofuel groups have been meeting with White House officials to negotiate a compromise on upcoming Renewable Fuel Standard renewable volume obligations (RVOs).
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Within the letter, the small refineries criticize the RFS, claiming the program has harmed their operations, and ask Trump to ensure they have “a seat at the table to ensure that the voices of small refineries are heard.”
The refineries claim that any increased in RFS RVOs will result in increased renewable identification number (RIN) prices that cause them harm. “Because the parties charged with giving you their recommendations are multi-national oil companies (that are also the world’s largest biofuel producer), and independent biofuels producers, their recommendations overlook the harm to small refineries and consumers,” they wrote.
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The small refineries ask Trump to pair any RFS RVO increases with “small refinery hardship relief.”
"We would welcome a seat at the table at the next meeting to ensure that all interested parties’ interests are considered,” the groups continued in the letter.
Under RFS regulations, small refineries are able to petition the EPA to waive their RFS blending obligations due to disproportionate economic hardship. According to EPA’s SRE data dashboard, 414 such petitions have been filed with the agency for RFS compliance years 2011 through 2025. To date, the EPA has approved 121 SRE petitions, denied 101 SRE petitions, and declared 13 petitions ineligible. An additional 23 petitions were withdrawn by the small refineries that filed them. There are currently 156 SRE petitions pending with the agency, including two for compliance year 2016; one for compliance year 2017; 38 for compliance year 2018; 27 for compliance year 2019; 28 for compliance year 2020; 17 for compliance year 2021; 10 for compliance year 2022; 12 for compliance year 2023; 15 for compliance year 2024; and six for compliance year 2025.
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