Clean Fuels disappointed with US EPA’s new small-refinery exemptions

The U.S. EPA announced decisions Aug. 31 on 34 petitions from small refineries seeking exemptions from compliance with 2025 Renewable Fuel Standard obligations.

EPA exempted 29 refineries (18 received 100 percent and 11 received 50 percent exemptions) from retiring a total of 1.76 billion RINs for 2025 compliance.

At the same time, the agency finalized a rule to further delay the 2025 RFS compliance date to Oct. 1 and provide additional benefits to all refiners.

EPA also announced its intention to finalize a supplemental rule before the end of October to ensure that the RINs exempted today are restored to 2026 and 2027 RFS volumes.

In the 2026-’27 RFS rule announced in March, EPA estimated that it would grant small-refinery exemptions (SREs) totaling 990 million RINs for 2025.

The agency established supplemental volumes for 2026 and 2027 to ensure that the exemptions would not undercut current biodiesel and renewable diesel production and halt investments in additional production capacity.

On Aug. 31, President Trump and EPA promised to restore all 770 million RINs exempted above the prior estimate through a forthcoming supplemental rule.

“America’s biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) producers have been working overtime to meet the historic RFS volumes announced just last March,” said Kurt Kovarik, Clean Fuels’ vice president of federal affairs. “The industry is producing at record pace today, providing a strong domestic market for America’s farmers, investing billions in rural communities, contributing to America’s energy security and providing American consumers a price break at the pump—in short, delivering measurable results on the administration’s goals for the RFS. We’re hopeful that today’s action won’t reverse the progress we’ve made and that our industry can maintain faith in the RFS program.”

Kovarik added that “Clean Fuels fundamentally disagrees that small refiners need reprieve from the tepid 2025 RFS volumes set by the prior administration. We appreciate the White House’s commitment to hold biofuel producers harmless and will work with EPA to quickly finalize the promised supplemental rule. We will continue to press the administration to reallocate future small-refinery exemptions to ensure they do not harm farmers and other stakeholders in clean fuel production.”

He said Clean Fuels and its members are grateful for the quick action of Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, Rep. Ashley Hinson and numerous other congressional champions who worked to ensure that EPA’s relief measures for small refineries do not come at the expense of America’s biofuel producers and farmers.