March 19, 2019
The EPA granted five additional 2017 small-refinery exemptions (SREs) to the Renewable Fuel Standard on Thursday, raising the agency total for that year to 34, according to an update posted to EPA’s online dashboard. The dashboard also indicates it has two more waiver requests pending for that year.
Ethanol industry interests, farmers and federal lawmakers were hopeful the agency would change the way it considered waivers under new Administrator Andrew Wheeler. The 2017 waiver requests were made during former Administrator Scott Pruitt’s tenure.
Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, said during a news conference that the agency’s latest actions would serve as a “bellwether” for how the EPA would handle waiver requests going forward and Thursday’s decision would be an “important indication” of where Wheeler stands.
“It’s extremely disappointing and outrageous to see EPA once again allow oil refiners to undermine the RFS and hurt family farms, ethanol producers and our environment by exploiting and abusing a statutory provision that exempts them from their obligations to blend renewable fuels,” Cooper said in a statement following the press conference.
“The RFS was created to preserve the environment, protect America’s energy security and give Americans more affordable options at the pump. These exemptions undercut those goals, and today’s exemptions mean more than 2.6 billion gallons of RFS blending obligations have been erased with the stroke of EPA’s pen.”
