EPA to not revoke waivers, extend RFS compliance

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will not revoke waivers of renewable fuel blending obligations and plans to extend the deadline for small refineries to comply with annual obligations, the agency said today.

The decision came just days after the agency allowed a deadline to pass without appealing a key 10th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that dramatically reduced the number of US refineries eligible for exemptions of Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) obligations.

EPA "does not intend to unilaterally revisit or rescind any previously granted small refinery exemptions issued for prior compliance years," the agency said, adding that such enforcement is a low priority amid efforts to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic.

The agency would also not move forward on implementing the waiver criteria the three-judge panel set in January until after other appeals were exhausted and the court's mandate issued.

RFS requires that refineries, importers and other companies to each year ensure minimum volumes of renewables blend into the gasoline and diesel they adding to the US transportation fuel supply. The law included a waiver for refineries processing less than 75,000 b/d of crude a year and demonstrating that the program created a hardship.

EPA has given dozens of these waivers under President Donald Trump's administration, angering biofuels and agribusiness supporters. But the 10th Circuit determined in January that the agency could only extend continuously approved waivers, limiting the eligibility to no more than three facilities, according to industry sources.

By Elliott Blackburn