5th Circuit Court of Appeal Ruled EPA’s denial of 6 small refineries’ exemption (SREs) requests under the RFS was contrary to law

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeal ruled in late November that EPA’s denial of 6 small refineries’ exemption requests under the RFS was contrary to law. The EPA had previously used a DOE study and scoring matrix to grant hardship petitions. The Fifth’s Circuit Court rejected the EPA’s recent approach that provided exemption only if their economic hardship was caused solely by RFS compliance costs. The Fifth Circuit Court ruled that the exemption should be based upon not just RFS compliance costs but also local economic conditions or refinery-specific circumstances. It is not yet known how EPA will respond to this decision, nor what will happen to the pending petitions.