United Refining sues EPA over failure to act on SRE petition

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Pennsylvania-based United Refining Co. is suing the U.S. EPA over the agency’s failure to act on a small refinery exemption (SRE) petition the company filed for compliance year 2019 in December 2019.

Documents filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on July 20 claim the EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has failed to perform a non-discretionary duty to grant or deny the plaintiff’s SRE petitions within the timeframe mandated by statute.

According to the documents, United Refining submitted a compliance year 2019 SRE petition to the EPA on or around Dec. 18, 2019. Under statute, the EPA has 90 days to act on such petitions. In May, United Refining sent Wheeler a notice indicating its intent to sue. More than 60 have passed since the agency received that notice.

The EPA’s online SRE dashboard shows that 27 SRE petitions have been filed for Renewable Fuel Standard compliance year 2019. Data previously posted to the dashboard shows 16 SRE petitions for compliance year 2019 had been filed as of Dec. 19, 2019 and 21 had been filed as of Jan. 16.  All 27 petitions filed to date for compliance year 2019 are still pending.