EPA reports new biofuel waiver requests back to 2011

US refiners have asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to waive federal biofuel mandates dating back to 2011 in a bid to preserve exemptions overturned by a January court decision.

EPA today disclosed six pending applications to waive Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requests for 2011 and 2012, and a peak of 11 new applications pending for exemptions of 2014 requirements. The agency also received one new request for 2019, bringing the pending applications to waive requirements for that year to 27. EPA received its first application for the 2020 compliance year since updating applications in late May.

Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler confirmed that refineries were now applying for exemptions of these so-called gap years, relying on language in the statute that allowed applications to be made at any time, he told agriculture media this week during a Wisconsin tour.

Those applications would also need to pass both Energy department and EPA review of economic hardship, he said. Biofuels advocates, including US Senate Finance Committee chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), denounced the requests as an attempt to subvert the court ruling.

RFS requires that refiners, importers and certain other companies each year ensure minimum volumes of renewables blend into the gasoline and diesel they add to the US transportation fuel supply. The law included an exemption for refineries processing fewer than 75,000 b/d of crude a year that were able to demonstrate to the Department of Energy and EPA that the mandates created a financial hardship.

These exemptions surged under President Donald Trump's administration, supported by a 2017 court ruling that former president Barack Obama's EPA was too restrictive with the waivers. The agency granted 35 waivers of 2017 requirements — almost 10pc of that year's blending requirements and four times the waivers granted of 2015 mandates.

The 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in January vacated two waivers for that year given to HollyFrontier refineries, and a third waiver to CVR Energy granted in 2018. Refineries could only receive exemptions continuously since 2011, the court found. Once a small refinery missed a year, it could not receive a waiver again. The criteria would limit exemptions to no more than three refineries nationwide, according to refiners.

Governors for six states requested broader, general waivers reducing total RFS requirements for all parties. US gasoline and jet fuel demand plummeted in late March as communities restricted travel and gatherings to limit the spread of Covid-19.

The National Wildlife Federation also requested EPA reduce requirements for environmental harm in a letter sent in May.

By Elliott Blackburn