RFA: EPA Stall Tactic on Tenth Circuit Decision Just Delays the Inevitable

March 30, 2020

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(Renewable Fuels Association) As part of a package intended to “protect the nation’s gasoline supply in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced it intends to wait until “appeals have been resolved and the court’s mandate has been issued” before developing “an appropriate implementation and enforcement response to the Tenth Circuit’s decision in RFA v. EPA.” On Tuesday, two refiners asked the Tenth Circuit for a rehearing en banc of the RFA v. EPA decision, in which the court struck down three small refinery exemptions and determined EPA had vastly exceeded its statutory authority. Notably, EPA did not ask the court to rehear the case. In response to today’s announcement, Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper released the following statement:

“EPA’s attempt to kick the can on nationwide application of the Tenth Circuit Court decision has nothing to do with COVID-19 and everything to do with politics. There is absolutely no reasonable justification for delaying implementation of the court’s decision. The court has already ‘issued a mandate’ and remanded three improperly granted exemptions back to the agency to resolve. EPA correctly chose not to seek a rehearing of the Tenth Circuit decision this week, signaling that it will abide by the decision and move swiftly to implement it. What are they waiting for? There is no rationale for EPA to wait for the courts to respond to the refiners’ hollow request for a rehearing before moving forward with adoption of the decision. In any event, given the unanimous and thoughtful decision by the Tenth Circuit panel that heard the case, we are confident that the ruling is going to be upheld. As ethanol plants are shutting down across the country and farmers are experiencing substantial demand losses, now is not the time for EPA to slow-walk implementation of a court order that would begin to restore integrity to the RFS program.” READ MORE

EPA Announces Steps to Protect the Availability of Gasoline during COVID-19 Pandemic (Environmental Protection Agency)

U.S. EPA waives fuel requirements, extends biofuels deadline to help refineries (Reuters)

U.S. EPA considers delaying compliance deadline for biofuels law (Reuters)

Trump administration walks away from ethanol court battle, angering oil refiners (The Hill)

EPA COVID-19 Response Delays Waiver Changes (Energy.AgWired.com)

EPA Holds Off on RFS Waivers Decision: EPA to Extend RFS Compliance Date for Small Refineries (DTN Progressive Farmer)

EPA issues guidance on future SRE actions, RFS compliance date (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

TUCKED IN EPA’S NEWS RELEASE ABOUT SUMMER-GRADE GAS: (Washington Examiner's Daily on Energy)

RFA Hits EPA for Delaying Action on 10th Circuit Court Ruling (DTN Progressive Farmer)

Oil refineries challenge Tenth Circuit Court ruling on SREs (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

Trump must hold EPA accountable (Huron Daily Tribune)

EPA Takes Steps to Ease Strain on Refiners, Won't Immediately Revisit Previous SREs (ProFarmer)

Trump to host oil meeting: Who's going and why it matters (E&E News)

EPA enforcement move meets API wish list — and then some (E&E News)

EPA has chance to back biofuels (Grand Island Independent)

LETTER: EPA must 'uphold integrity' of RFS (Sioux City Journal)

Excerpt from Environmental Protection Agency: EPA does not intend to unilaterally revisit or rescind any previously granted small refinery exemptions issued for prior compliance years. As noted in the temporary policy on COVID-19 Implications for EPA's Enforcement and Assurance Program, issued yesterday, EPA is focused on protecting our employees and ensuring continued protection of public health and the environment from acute or imminent threats during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, investigating and initiating enforcement actions against small refineries that were previously subject to an exemption is a low priority for the agency. EPA intends to develop an appropriate implementation and enforcement response to the Tenth Circuit’s decision in RFA v. EPA once appeals have been resolved and the court’s mandate has been issued.

Finally, in a forthcoming action, EPA intends to extend the RFS compliance date for small refineries to provide them with additional flexibility. READ MORE