Biden EPA supports 10th Circuit Court’s decision on SREs

Biden EPA supports 10th Circuit Court’s decision on SREs
MGN Online
February 23rd, 2021 | NAFB News Service

The Biden Administration handed a major victory to the corn ethanol industry. The EPA says it agrees with last year’s ruling by the Tenth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that rejected the Trump EPA’s retroactive waivers to oil refiners from the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The Biden EPA says the Tenth Circuit ruling “better reflects” the law and Congress’s intent in establishing the RFS. Ethanol groups that filed suit against the Trump EPA hailed the EPA’s reversal under the new administration, which did not file a brief with the Supreme Court by Monday’s deadline, backing the earlier EPA’s position.

Small refiners appealed the Tenth Circuit ruling, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, though it’s unclear what impact the latest development might have on the case going forward. Renewable Fuels Association’s CEO Geoff Cooper issued a statement, calling the announcement “a giant step forward” to restore the integrity to the RFS.

The RFA and Growth Energy both agreed with EPA’s finding that the small refinery exemption is a temporary measure intended for true economic harm from compliance. The lower court had agreed that only previously existing exemptions could be extended. The RFA estimates that more than four billion gallons of ethanol demand were lost to dozens of Trump EPA RFS waivers.

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