The Renewable Fuels Association submitted comments this week to oppose an EPA proposal to extend the deadlines for demonstrating compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard for 2019 and 2020.

“This proposal is unnecessary, and the timelines are excessive,” wrote RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. “All that the extensions would do is to compound problems that the EPA itself created under the last administration: the massive and unjustified increase in small refinery exemptions and the failure to finalize the 2021 renewable volume obligations by the statutory deadline.”

Cooper pointed out that it is reasonable to assume refiners and other obligated parties were already preparing to meet the March 31 regulatory compliance deadline when the EPA’s proposal was issued in January. Those refiners that did not prepare for compliance should not be rewarded for their bad behavior, Cooper said.

The RFA called on the EPA to reject the proposed extensions and re-establish integrity in its implementation of the RFS.