EPA’s Wheeler Says He Has Questions about SRE Gap Waiver Applications

August 12, 2020

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by Larry Lee (Brownfield Ag News) EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the gap SRE applications have been sent over from the Department of Energy. “They just started sending them to us the week before last, so our guys are just now starting to look at them.”

Farmers and biofuel producers have been trying to find out where the Trump Administration is with the controversial gap year applications by the oil industry. Renewable fuels advocates say the courts have ruled in their favor on Small Refinery Waivers, and the gap year applications should not be considered at all.

Wheeler says the applications can be submitted “at any time” and the law requires the applications to go through both agencies. The Administrator says it is unclear when or if those waivers will be approved because it is very complicated, and he has questions. “There are some questions that I personally have, as, how can you prove an economic harm in 2012 if you’re still in existence today? Then we also have to look at what the remedy is because the appropriate remedy would not be to give people current year RINS for something from 2012 or 2013.”

When asked if the waiver application reviews will be done before the election, he says, “I’m not sure how long it’s going to take us to review them.”

Wheeler also hesitated to say when EPA will finalize the 2021 Renewable Volume Obligations because of COVID-19. “You have the impact on the refining sector. You also have the impact on the ethanol sector. There’s a number of ethanol plants that have shut down as well, so we have to factor all of that in.” Wheeler says Marathon also shut down two refineries recently. The Administrator says EPA did send a package to the Office of Management and Budget for review a few months ago, but he says the entire landscape has changed since then, and the agency started working on RVO rules before COVID-19 hit. READ MORE includes AUDIO

Wheeler discusses expected delays in 2021 RVOs, gap year SREs (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

LETTER: EPA needs to stop destroying biofuel industry in U.S. (Portage Daily Register)

EPA's Wheeler Raises Questions On Gap-Year Refinery Exemption Requests (DTN Progressive Farmer)

Executives request Trump back small refineries on relief -letter (Reuters)