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EPA Grants 1 Full, 2 Partial Small Refinery Exemptions, Denies 3

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The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday granted a full exemption for one small refinery exemption petition, while granting two others only a 50% exemption and deeming three petitions ineligible.

The EPA consulted with the Department of Energy on decisions on six individual small refinery exemption petitions from four refineries seeking exemptions from their Renewable Fuel Standard obligations for the 2023 and 2024 compliance years.

EPA said it is adjudicating SRE petitions pursuant to the authority granted to the agency under the Clean Air Act section 211(o)(9)(B).

The CAA provides that a small refinery may petition EPA at any time for an extension of its exemption from the RFS program's obligations on the grounds of disproportionate economic hardship.

Additionally, these adjudications are based on EPA's determination that, when extending an exemption in whole or in part to a small refinery that has already retired renewable identification numbers to comply with its RFS obligations, Section 211(o) of the CAA limits the agency to returning some or all of those retired RINs, commensurate with the degree of the exemption.

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