The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit for a voluntary remand of a decision the agency made in 2019 under the Trump administration granting 31 small refinery exemptions (SREs) and denying five requests. The move follows the Supreme Court striking down a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said small refinery exemptions must be granted consecutively. In a 6-3 decision, the court noted SREs from Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) blending requirements do not need to be extended continuously.
“While EPA does not confess error, EPA acknowledges that a more robust analysis and explanation of its rationale for any action taken on remand would make any judicial review more efficient,” the agency said in its filing. If EPA’s request is granted, it would not vacate the waivers. The agency said the remand could help it further review “what, if any, impact the remaining holdings in the 10th Circuit’s decision may have on EPA’s implementation of the small-refinery exemption provision generally” and on the small-refinery petitions considered in following the Supreme Court’s decision.
The Renewable Fuels Association supports EPA’s reevaluation of the exemptions, but it objects to EPA’s remand request “because it is unaccompanied by vacatur or some kind of limitations on its review,” RFA President Geoff Cooper says.