The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the request for a rehearing that was filed by two oil refining companies in response to the court’s unanimous decision Jan. 24 in Renewable Fuels Association et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The court found that EPA abused its statutory authority in issuing Renewable Fuel Standard compliance exemptions to small refineries and overturned three specific exemptions.

“We are pleased the 10th Circuit Court acted so quickly to deny the refiners’ baseless request for a rehearing,” said RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “It’s time for EPA to immediately implement the 10th Circuit decision nationwide, starting with the pending 2019 petitions. There are no excuses left for further delaying implementation of this important decision that helps restore integrity to the Renewable Fuel Standard.”

American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings said this is an opportunity for EPA to restore some certainty for the industry. “We always believed the appeal by HollyFrontier and CVR had no merit. Now, we fully expect EPA to comply with the law and end its mismanagement of the RFS. The economic fall-out of COVID-19 is causing substantial damage to the ethanol industry, and in this world filled with so much uncertainty, EPA can provide some much-needed certainty to the RFS by applying the Tenth Circuit Court precedent nationwide.”