EPA: 66 SRE petitions now pending

The U.S. EPA released updated small refinery exemption (SRE) data on Dec. 17, reporting that five additional SRE petitions have been filed with the agency seeking exemptions of Renewable Fuel Standard blending requirements. The status of three other SRE petitions appear to have been changed from “denied” to “pending.” A total of 66 SREs are now listed as pending, up from 58 as of Nov. 19.

The five newly filed SRE petitions are all for RFS compliance year 2020, increasing the number of pending petitions for that compliance year from nine as of Nov. 19 to 14 as of Dec. 17.

The EPA’s online data dashboard also shows that two SRE petitions are now pending for compliance year 2016, up from one that was pending as of Nov. 19. The total number of SRE petitions filed for compliance year 2016 was unchanged, but the number of denied petitions dropped from eight to seven. Similar changes in status were made for one SRE petition in each of the compliance years 2017 and 2018. As a result, the total number of currently pending SRE petitions has increased by eight to 66.

The 66 pending SRE petitions now include two for RFS compliance year 2011, two for 2012, three for 2013, four for 2014, three for 2015, two for 2016, one for 2017, three for 2018, 32 for 2019 and 14 for 2020.

Additional data is available on the EPA’s online SRE dashboard.