RFA Petitions Court on RFS Exemptions

by Todd Neeley (DTN Progressive Farmer) RFA Petitions Appeals Court for Rehearing on RFS Exemptions Decision -- The Renewable Fuels Association on Monday asked for a rehearing on a previous court decision to overturn EPA's rejection of 100 small-refinery waiver requests to the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The RFA asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for a rehearing on the challenge brought by oil companies.

In November 2023, the Fifth Circuit determined it was the proper venue to hear a challenge brought by six small refineries that saw their RFS compliance exemption petitions denied by the EPA. The court also overturned EPA's denial of those exemption requests.

The RFA said the Fifth Circuit erred in ruling it was the proper venue to hear the oil companies' petition.

"The (Washington) D.C. Circuit has exclusive venue over challenges to EPA's April and June 2022 decisions to deny small-refinery petitions for exemptions from compliance with the RFS program," RFA said in its petition. "The panel erred in declining to transfer this case to that court."

RFA's petition said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is the only proper venue for hearing such challenges.

In particular, the Clean Air Act specifies that the D.C. Circuit is the only appropriate court to hear challenges regarding EPA actions that are "nationally applicable" and considered by the agency to have nationwide scope or effect.

Back in November 2023, the Fifth Circuit said the EPA's April 2022 rejection of 31 exemptions previously granted and the later rejection of 69 more exemptions in June 2022 were not allowed by law.

"Six small refineries challenge the EPA's decision to deny their requested exemptions from their obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard program of the Clean Air Act," the court said in the ruling. "The EPA denied petitioners' years-old petitions using a novel CAA interpretation and economic theory that the agency published in December 2021. We conclude that the denial was (1) impermissibly retroactive; (2) contrary to law; and (3) counter to the record evidence. We grant the petitions for review, vacate the challenged adjudications, deny a change of venue, and remand."

Filing the original legal challenge were Calumet Shreveport Refining LLC, Placid Refining Company LLC, Ergon Refining Inc. and Wynnewood Refining Company LLC. READ MORE

Excerpt from Ethanol Producer Magazine: “As we noted in November, this lawsuit was never about the purported economic hardship faced by a small group of refineries—its ultimate goal was to allow those refineries not to comply with the law, and to block consumer access to lower-cost, lower-carbon fuel options at the pump,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “In its opinion, the Fifth Circuit made procedural and substantive errors and failed to consider the record, which demonstrates that EPA’s decision to deny the refinery exemptions was correct and well within its authority.”

“We hope that the rehearing petition will prompt the court to revisit and revise its opinion to allow EPA to continue to properly implement the nationwide SRE program, and ensure the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard, which spurs the production of American-made biofuels to bolster our rural economy, ensure national and energy security, lower carbon emissions, and save consumers money.”

Excerpt from Poltico Pro Greenwire: The Renewable Fuels Association and truck-stop owners asked a federal court for another chance to defeat small refineries' exemptions from biofuel blending mandates. -- Critics of the biofuel-blending waivers EPA grants small refineries are asking a federal court to reconsider its recent ruling favoring the waivers — or at least to hand over the matter to different judges.

Associations representing truck-stop operators, fuel marketers and ethanol producers are separately taking on a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruling in November that threw out the Biden administration's denials of multiple small refinery exemptions.

The truck-stop owners and fuel marketers, represented by the trade groups NATSO and SIGMA, on Tuesday asked the New Orleans-based appeals court to have its three-judge panel reconsider the case or refer it to the full circuit for a rehearing. The Renewable Fuels Association last week asked to have the case transferred to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, arguing that the issues at hand are national in scope.

In a court filing, NATSO and SIGMA said the three-judge panel's November decision upholding small refinery exemptions "is factually wrong and fundamentally misunderstands fuel and RIN markets," referring to renewable identification numbers, or the renewable fuel credits that companies buy and sell to demonstrate compliance with the federal renewable fuel standard. READ MORE