EPA: No new SRE petitions filed, 27 SRE petitions remain pending

The U.S. EPA on May 18 released updated small refinery exemption (SRE) data, showing that no new SRE petitions have been filed under the Renewable Fuel Standard during the past month. According to the agency, 27 SRE petitions remain pending.

The 27 pending SRE petitions include one for compliance year 2016, one for compliance year 2017, three for compliance year 2018, 11 for compliance year 2021, 10 for compliance year 2022, and one for compliance year 2023.

The EPA’s data also indicates that 17 small refineries have opted into the agency’s optional alternative renewable identification number (RIN) retirement schedule for compliance year 2020. The alternative schedule, established via a rulemaking finalized in August 2022, provides small refineries with additional time and a broader range of RINs to comply with their 2020 renewable volume obligations (RVOs).

The total RVO of the 17 small refineries that have opted into the program is 880 million RINs. That number includes prior year deficits carried over into 2020. A total of 270 of those RINs have now been retired, with the outstanding RVO at 600 million RINs.

The EPA made no other changes to its online SRE data dashboard. Additional data is available on the agency’s website.