Supreme Court overturns Tenth Circuit Court ruling on small refinery exemptions

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Supreme Court overturns Tenth Circuit Court ruling on small refinery exemptions

The Supreme Court has overturned last year’s Tenth Circuit Court ruling that limited EPA’s authority to issue small refinery exemptions.

In a 6-3 decision Friday, the justices rejected arguments that EPA cannot extend exemptions to any small refineries whose earlier, temporary exemptions had lapsed.

A coalition of biofuels groups including the Renewable Fuels Association and American Coalition for Ethanol is disappointed in the outcome of the Supreme Court case, but the group says they remain optimistic the Biden administration will discontinue the previous administration’s flagrant abuse of the refinery exemption program.

The coalition points out certain elements of the appellate court ruling were left unchallenged and not reviewed by the Supreme Court, and they are thanking President Biden and EPA Administrator Michael Regan for taking swift action to rein in SRE’s.

There are currently 70 small refinery exemption petitions pending with EPA for compliance years 2011 to 2020.

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