Clean Fuels supports US EPA’s proposal to reallocate SREs in 2026-’27
Clean Fuels Alliance America’s Kurt Kovarik, the vice president of federal affairs; Kate Shenk, the regulatory-affairs director; and Kent Engelbrecht, the governing-board chair, each testified Nov. 4 at U.S. EPA’s virtual public hearing on the proposed reallocation of additional 2025 small refinery exemptions (SREs).
This spring, EPA’s final rule on 2026-’27 Renewable Fuel Standard volumes included an estimate that 2025 SREs would total 990 million renewable identification number (RIN) credits.
In August, EPA granted 2025 exemptions totaling 1.76 billion RINs.
In October, EPA proposed to add supplemental volumes to the 2026-’27 RFS to reallocate 100 percent of the difference between its April estimate and August final action.
Clean Fuels supports EPA’s proposal to reallocate 100 percent of the difference and split the supplemental volume between 2026 and 2027 obligations.
“We strongly support EPA’s proposal to reallocate the gallons equally to 2026 and 2027 volume obligations,” Kovarik said. “We ask the agency to finalize this supplemental rule as soon as possible—certainly by the end of the year—to ensure that the robust volumes for 2026 and 2027 are not eroded by small refinery exemptions, past or future.”
Shenk added, “Any delays in finalizing this rule will have real market impacts similar to what we saw when the SREs were granted in August. Timely action before the end of the year will be crucial to address diesel supplies and prices. Biodiesel and renewable diesel producers will respond to this rule and the stability of the RFS program the same way we ramped up production when the Set 2 rule was finalized in April.”
Kovarik concluded, “The clean-fuels industry is delivering on the goals for the RFS—making investments in rural America, creating new jobs and massively increasing America’s energy supply. U.S. companies throughout the biodiesel, renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supply chain have announced new investments in capacity since earlier this year, based on the robust RFS volumes.”
