IRFA applauds US EPA proposal to reallocate 100% of additional RFS refinery exemptions
Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw testified Nov. 4 at a U.S. EPA public hearing on the agency’s proposed rule to reallocate additional 2025 small-refinery exemptions (SREs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
IRFA supports EPA’s proposal to reallocate 100 percent of the volumes exempted through additional SREs into the 2026-’27 compliance years.
Full reallocation ensures that exempted gallons do not reduce the overall renewable fuel blending obligations, helping protect demand for biofuels and uphold the integrity of the RFS.
“I want to start by thanking the EPA for proposing the full reallocation of the unexpected, additional SREs that were recently granted,” Shaw said at the hearing. “It is difficult for us to understand, at a time of record profits in the petroleum industry, how companies can claim economic hardship and receive a nearly record number of SREs for 2025.”
Shaw asked EPA to review Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird’s letter documenting the discrepancies between what some of these companies are telling EPA and U.S. DOE versus what they are reporting to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and their shareholders.
“We are not aware of any response to that detailed documentation,” he said. “We believe there needs to be a change to the SRE system, and that is something the EPA can address even as we hope Congress takes action as well.”
Shaw added that IRFA supports full reallocation, with 50 percent of the SRE volumes allocated to 2026 and the remaining 50 percent allocated to 2027.
“It is important to note that under the RFS, any obligated party can roll forward up to 100 percent of its obligation into the following year,” Shaw said. “So, if the EPA were to put all of these volumes into 2027, they could simply be carried into 2028. We believe it is very important that some of these volumes be allocated to 2026 and some to 2027.”
Shaw noted that, when the RFS blending levels were set earlier this year, plants in Iowa were shut down and employees were laid off.
“Today, those plants are running and running at full capacity,” he said. “The robust RFS that the Trump administration and EPA established earlier this year has done what it was intended to do. We do not want to see that progress reversed.”
Maintaining renewable fuel obligations for 2026-’27 is important to providing market certainty for renewable fuels producers, supporting Iowa farmers and strengthening the rural communities that depend on a strong domestic biofuels industry, IRFA stated.
