August 2025 Decisions on Petitions for RFS Small Refinery Exemptions Public Comment DEADLINE TBD

August 22, 2025

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(U.S. Environmental Protection Agency) On August 22, 2025, EPA announced its decisions on 175 individual small refinery exemption petitions from 38 refineries seeking an exemption from their Renewable Fuel Standard obligations for the 2016–2024 compliance years. In consultation with the Department of Energy, EPA reviewed all the information submitted by each individual refinery in support of its petition. After careful consideration of all statutory factors and the information submitted by the refineries, EPA is granting full (100 percent) exemptions to 63 petitions, granting partial (50 percent) exemptions to 77 petitions, denying 28 petitions, and determining 7 petitions to be ineligible.

This document articulates EPA’s interpretation of section 211(o)(9) of the Clean Air Act and EPA’s authority with respect to SRE petitions. As required by CAA section 211(o)(9), EPA’s final actions on the pending SRE petitions are based on the legal and factual analysis presented herein, after consulting with DOE, and considering the DOE Small Refinery Study and “other economic factors.”

This document also explains how EPA will implement SRE decisions when an exemption is granted. In addition, this document articulates the status of 34 SRE petitions from 31 refineries for the 2016–2018 compliance years.

The decisions in this document are final Agency actions.

Additional Resources

Notice of August 2025 Decisions on Petitions for Small Refinery Exemptions Under the Renewable Fuel Standard Program (pdf) (194.31 KB, pre-publication, signed August 22, 2025)
August 2025 Decisions on Petitions for RFS Small Refinery Exemptions (pdf) (571.67 KB, August 2025, EPA-420-R-25-010) READ MORE

Related articles

Clean Fuels Will Work with EPA to Reallocate Exempted RFS Gallons (Clean Fuels Alliance America)
RFA Says EPA Taking ‘Reasonable’ Approach to SRE Backlog (Renewable Fuels Association)
Growth Energy Statement on EPA SRE Decision (Growth Energy)
US EPA approves biofuel waivers for small refiners, stirring concerns over demand (Reuters/Yahoo! Finance)

Excerpt from Clean Fuels Alliance America: Today, Clean Fuels Alliance America began carefully evaluating EPA’s grant to 38 small refineries of full or partial exemptions from compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standards for 2016-2024. EPA announced a new framework for granting small refinery exemption petitions and applied it to more than 175 pending petitions, including previously denied petitions.

Clean Fuels expressed wariness of the agency’s award to the refiners of more than 1.4 billion Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) from compliance years 2023 and 2024 to be used for the delayed compliance deadline for 2024. EPA indicated it will propose a supplemental rule in the coming month to consider reallocating the associated RIN gallons and address the impact on the recently proposed 2026-2027 RFS volumes. Clean Fuels looks forward to working with EPA to quickly finalize this proposal, which will delay the finalization of the 2026 and 2027 rule.

Kurt Kovarik, Clean Fuels’ Vice President of Federal Affairs, stated, “EPA’s course correction on RFS small refinery exemptions creates fresh uncertainty for America’s farmers and biodiesel, renewable diesel, and SAF producers. We look forward to working with the agency to ensure today’s decision does not unwind the strong signal of support issued in June through robust RFS volumes meant to drive growth and recognize investment in domestic fuels and American agriculture.”

In the recently proposed Renewable Fuel Standards for 2026 and 2027 and Draft Regulatory Impact Analysis, EPA reiterated that its analyses consistently show “all obligated parties—including small refiners—fully recover the costs of RFS compliance” through fuel sales.

Kovarik continued, “EPA’s announcement conflicts with its consistent finding that small refiners are not facing disproportionate economic hardships from RFS compliance. Refunding retired RINs has the potential to undercut current markets for domestic biodiesel, renewable diesel, and SAF as well as for American oilseed crops and other feedstocks. This announcement comes just as farmers begin planning to harvest the year’s soybean crop, which is expected to achieve a record-setting yield. We urge EPA to ensure that small refinery exemptions do not undermine the market for farmers and clean fuel producers.”

ABOUT CLEAN FUELS ALLIANCE AMERICA

Made from an increasingly diverse mix of resources such as recycled cooking oil, soybean oil, and animal fats, the clean fuels industry is a proven, integral part of America’s clean energy future. Clean Fuels Alliance America is the U.S. trade association representing the entire biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel supply chain, including producers, feedstock suppliers and fuel distributors. Clean Fuels receives funding from a broad mix of private companies and associations, including the United Soybean Board and state checkoff organizations. READ MORE

Excerpt from Renewable Fuels Association: While the Renewable Fuels Association continues to question whether these SREs are truly justified, RFA noted that EPA’s approach for implementing these exemptions appears reasonable and should not disrupt the marketplace or reduce actual renewable fuel consumption.

For exempted small refineries who had already fulfilled their RFS obligations for past compliance years, EPA will return the corresponding RINs retired by those small refineries for each compliance year. For all years but 2023 and 2024, those RINs have expired and may not be used to comply with standards that are currently open. EPA also announced its intent to soon propose that exempted volumes for 2023 and beyond be reallocated to ensure that the integrity of already-finalized RFS volumes is maintained. The agency will be accepting public comments on the matter of reallocation for 2023 and beyond.

In response to the EPA announcement, RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper offered the following statement:

“While RFA continues to doubt that the small refineries receiving exemptions today truly experienced ‘disproportionate economic hardship’ due to the RFS, we are pleased to see EPA taking an approach to implementation of these exemptions that is minimally disruptive to the marketplace and affirms the agency’s intent to reallocate renewable fuel volumes lost to SREs. We appreciate that EPA is focused on an approach that maintains stability in the marketplace and ensures finalized annual volumes under the RFS are maintained. The exemptions granted today should have little or no effect on current and future levels of renewable fuel production and use. It is critical, however, that the renewable fuel blending volumes associated with SREs for 2023 and 2024 are fully reallocated.

“In the days ahead, RFA will be further analyzing EPA’s new approach and rationale for determining disproportionate economic hardship. According to EPA’s previous analysis, all refiners—both small and large—recoup their RIN costs when they sell gasoline and diesel. Thus, there is no credible evidence that small refiners are disproportionately affected by RFS compliance, or that the financial impact of RFS compliance rises to a level anywhere close to ‘economic hardship.’ In any case, SREs were always intended to be a temporary measure and a bridge to compliance—not a permanent handout. Small refiners have now had two full decades to adapt their operations to comply with the RFS.” READ MORE

Excerpt from Growth Energy: Growth Energy, the nation’s largest biofuel trade association, issued the following statement today in response to an SRE decision from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about small refinery exemptions (SREs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“With more than 140 granted refinery exemptions, today’s [SRE] decision alone does not give farmers and biofuel producers the certainty they need,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “It is imperative that EPA reallocates each and every exempt gallon in a forthcoming rule to mitigate the potentially devastating impact on biofuel demand. We appreciate EPA’s commitment to issue a rule that ensures promised homegrown biofuel gallons reach the marketplace and upholds the administration’s commitment to American energy dominance.”

Learn more about the RFS here. READ MORE

Excerpt from Reuters/Yahoo! Finance: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday approved most of its backlog of requests by small oil refineries for biofuel law exemptions, raising concerns among biofuels advocates over a potential hit to demand.

The approvals are also a mixed blessing for the cohort of small U.S. refiners who have argued for years they are hurt financially by the federal mandate to blend biofuels like ethanol into the country's fuel supply. Many of their requests have now become so old that the waivers they have secured are worthless.

...

But because RINS have just a two-year lifespan, only 1.39 billion can still be used for compliance and retain any value, according to the EPA announcement.

...

The EPA said it would issue a proposal soon on how to reallocate the exempted volumes.

The supplemental rule is expected late next week, sources familiar with the planning told Reuters.

...

There are now just 13 pending waiver requests, according to the EPA data. READ MORE

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August 2025 Decisions on Petitions for RFS Small Refinery Exemptions Public Comment DEADLINE TBD

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