EPA Opens Comment Period on Supplemental Notice of Rulemaking Concerning SREs

On October 15, 2019, EPA issued a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking on cellulosic biofuel, advanced biofuel, and total renewable fuel volumes for 2020 and the biomass-based diesel volume for 2021. The supplemental notice proposes adjustments to the way annual renewable fuel percentages are calculated.

Specifically, the EPA is projecting the volume of gasoline and diesel that will be exempt in 2020 due to small refinery exemptions (SREs) based on a three-year average of the number of the exemptions recommended by the Department of Energy (DOE). The agency proposes to use this average value to adjust the way it calculates renewable fuel percentages. The DOE-estimated exemptions do not account for the actual gallons waived by EPA through the SRE’s. In order to effectively address demand destruction moving forward, EPA must incorporate a projection of the actual exempted gallons, not simply the DOE recommendation which does not reflect the actual SREs.

Today, EPA held a public hearing in Ypsilanti, Mich. on the Supplemental Notice. This hearing begins a 30-day comment period for the public to provide comments to EPA on the Supplemental Notice. For more information of this supplemental notice, and to submit comments, go to Regulations.gov, Here. File your comment at the website, under EPA Docket Number EPA-HQ-OAR-2019-0136, and on or before the November 29, 2019 comment deadline.