Refiners file wave of fresh suits over RFS waiver denials

Source: By Inside EPA • Posted: Sunday, August 14, 2022

Refiners have filed a fresh wave of lawsuits against EPA over its denial en masse of their requests for economic hardship waivers from compliance with renewable fuel standard (RFS) biofuel blending mandates, following an earlier series of suits filed by many of the same firms over EPA’s April retroactive denial of waivers already granted.

In the suits filed Aug. 8 in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, refiners challenge EPA’s June 3 action denying all remaining waiver applications. Although the waivers are in theory available to small refiners that can demonstrate “disproportionate economic hardship” from RFS compliance, EPA has adopted a policy of denying all waivers on the basis that small refiners cannot make the requisite showing because they are unharmed by the RFS.

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