Wheeler Talks About Gap-Year SREs

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler talked about the 52 gap-year Small Refinery Exemption petitions awaiting the agency. The 52 applications cover the years 2011-2018. There are 27 more SRE applications for 2019 and one for 2020. All the applications are in the hands of the Department of Energy for review. The 52 applications were sent in earlier this year by refiners after a Court of Appeals ruling earlier this year in the Tenth Circuit. A DTN report says the biofuels industry and supportive lawmakers are in the middle of a public relations campaign to encourage the EPA to reject all of the applications. Some of the petitions that go as far back as 2012 have renewable identification numbers for that year which have expired. Wheeler says that means there are several potential problems with the petitions. “So, there are questions about whether they can show economic harm and what the remedy would be,” Wheeler says. “First, we’re waiting to see what the Department of Energy has to say about the small refinery exemptions.”