The Advanced Biofuels Association (ABFA) has filed a lawsuit against U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt over the agency’s process of granting small refinery exemptions from compliance Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) obligations.

“We have seen reports that the number of small refinery exemptions recently granted for compliance years 2016 and 2017 have doubled compared to previous years,” said Michael McAdams, president of ABFA. “ABFA members are concerned that Administrator Pruitt is granting these exemptions in an arbitrary and capricious manner to undisclosed parties behind closed doors with no accountability for its decision-making process.”

McAdams adds that reports about the exemptions have had “significant market impacts on the prices of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) for the biomass-based diesel (D4) and overall renewable fuel (D6) pools…causing economic harm to ABFA’s members and posing a threat to the integrity of the RFS program at large.”

ABFA filed the petition last week with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit