The last minute small refinery exemptions granted by outgoing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Tuesday night were put on hold by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today. In response to an emergency motion filed Tuesday evening by the Renewable Fuels Association, the court ordered that EPA’s action to grant three small refinery petitions must be “administratively …
RFA Takes Action to Stop Last Minute Refinery Waivers
The Renewable Fuels Association wasted no time in taking action to stop the last minute small refinery exemptions granted Tuesday by the outgoing Trump Administration Environmental Protection Agency. RFA filed a petition for review and an emergency motion to stay the effectiveness of the waivers, which the organization says will “inflict substantial, immediate, and irreversible harm” to the U.S. ethanol …
What President Biden Can Do Now to Cut Carbon Emissions
Now that President Biden has been sworn in, the Renewable Fuels Association has a way the new administration can immediately cut carbon emissions by 12 million metric tons. RFA recently released an analysis that shows President Biden could cut 10.7 million metric tons of greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions simply by rejecting the 66 pending waiver requests from oil refiners who …
Mixed Bag of Last Minute EPA Proposals for Biofuels
With just days before a new administration takes office, the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday issued a mixed bag of last minute proposals for biofuels producers. First, in Friday’s Federal Register, EPA proposed to extend compliance deadlines for 2019 and 2020 renewable volume obligations, stating that the agency would “take no position on the availability of SREs for the 2019 …
Ethanol Report 1-15-21
2021 is getting off to a whirlwind start for the ethanol industry. The year is barely started and the industry has already seen an unexpected Supreme Court unexpectedly taking up the Tenth Circuit Court decision from last January, heard rumors of last minute granting of small refinery waivers, and then got hit with four proposals from the outgoing EPA related …
Democrat Senators Urge Biden to Restore RFS
A group of Democratic Senators sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging him to “restore the integrity of the Renewable Fuel Standard and quickly reverse the damages done to the RFS by the outgoing Trump administration.” The letter was sent rom Sens. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tina Smith (D-MN), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Richard …
RFA Announces DC Staff Changes
The Renewable Fuels Association has announced two new staff members for the organization’s Washington DC office. Troy Bredenkamp is joining the association’s staff as its new Senior Vice President for Government and Public Affairs. Bredenkamp, who currently serves as the Executive Director of Renewable Fuels Nebraska, starts in RFA’s Washington office on January 19. He replaces Jessica Bennett, who is …
Supreme Court Will Hear RFS Waiver Case
Late Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the 10th Circuit Court decision made a year ago this month that invalidated several small refinery exemptions issued by EPA under the Renewable Fuel Standard. The decision is in response to a petition submitted in September by HollyFrontier Corporation and CVR Energy, two of the refineries named in the case. The …
Ethanol Groups Want Transparency in SRE Process
The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) and Growth Energy filed a joint FOIA request Tuesday calling on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy to release the names and locations of refineries granted exemptions from their Renewable Fuel Standard obligations. RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper and Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor offered the following joint statement on the …
Author and Energy Expert Daniel Yergin to Headline NEC
Pulitzer Prize winning author and energy expert Daniel Yergin will be a keynote speaker at the 26th annual National Ethanol Conference. Dr. Yergin will speak the morning of Wednesday, February 17, with a presentation titled, “The New Map: Energy and Geopolitics Coming Out of the Pandemic.” “Dr. Yergin’s appearance at the NEC will be especially timely this year, as the …