A Shreveport refinery has filed an appeal with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge a recent federal Environmental Protection Agency decision revoking the refinery’s previously granted exemption from a requirement to blend renewable fuel with gasoline.
Calumet Shreveport Refining LLC said in court papers that it was appealing last month’s decision by the EPA denying 36 small refinery exemptions to the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. The refinery’s parent company did not respond to requests for comment, and the company has yet to file its legal reasoning challenging the April 7 EPA decision.
Calumet’s challenge comes despite the EPA offering many small refineries an alternate method of complying with the agency’s decision. That alternative would allow 31 refineries to meet their 2018 RFS obligations without purchasing additional biofuels for ethanol blends.
In making the decision, the EPA was responding to recent federal court opinions limiting the agency’s ability to grant RFS exemptions. But the Renewable Fuels Association expressed disappointment about the EPA’s April 7 decision, which reversed a previous EPA decision made during the Trump administration.
The association did not respond directly to Calumet’s effort to regain its exemption but provided the Louisiana Record with an association statement concluding the EPA decision fails to rectify the economic and environmental harm the “improperly granted” 2018 exemptions have already caused.
“Low-carbon biofuels are the single best tool to deliver immediate relief at the pump, strengthen U.S. energy security and protect the climate,” the statement says. “EPA’s move to hold refiners accountable to the law is a welcome step toward getting the RFS back on track that, when applied to pending and future (small refinery exemption) petitions, would improve certainty in the marketplace.”
But the association criticized the agency’s provision of the alternative compliance path, which allows certain refiners to resubmit 2018 compliance reports along with other gasoline production data for that year..
“EPA’s readiness to excuse individual refineries from their obligations to comply with 2018 blending requirements comes at the expense of our biofuels producers, farmers and American consumers,” the statement says.
Federal courts have ruled that the EPA does not have the authority to grant RFS exemptions based on financial hardships that are not the specific result of RFS compliance.