Administration Negotiates Small Refinery Waiver Solution With EPA

(WASHINGTON, DC) After a controversial decision issued in August to exempt some small petroleum refineries from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the Trump administration announced that it will propose expansions to biofuel blending requirements beginning next year. The proposal comes from an agreement between the White House, USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On Friday, EPA announced actions that would ensure that more than 15 billion gallons of conventional ethanol is blended into the nation’s fuel supply beginning in 2020 and that the volume obligation for biomass-based diesel is met. According to an EPA official, this will include accounting for relief expected to be provided for small refineries but will not account for prior-year waivers already granted to small refiners. The agency will propose accounting for small-refinery exemptions starting in 2020 with a three-year rolling average of volumes waived. The agency will also initiate another rulemaking process to streamline labeling and remove barriers to the sale of E15 nationally. USDA will consider more infrastructure projects, including installation of blender pumps at retail outlets, to facilitate the sale of higher biofuel blends. EPA granted 31 small refiners’ exemptions amounting to 1.4 billion gallons from the RFS in August.