The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in a case that will determine where challenges to small refinery exemptions (SREs) decisions under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) should be brought.

The renewable fuels industry argued in favor of the petitioner, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the case versus Calumet Shreveport Refining, and other refineries.

The Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy jointly intervened on EPA’s behalf, urging the court to reject an argument by refineries that would allow them to “forum shop” for more favorable venues to challenge recent SRE denials despite clear direction from Congress that those decisions should be adjudicated in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

“Congress clearly intended to streamline review of SRE decisions to ensure consistency and uniformity for assessing SRE petitions,” said RFA and Growth Energy in a joint statement. “Today, the American biofuels industry came together to argue in front of the nation’s highest court, and to defend farmers and ethanol producers from the oil industry’s attempts to create an inefficient and fractured body of law governing the SRE program.”

The Supreme Court had previously remanded a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which held that challenges to the SRE denials at issue were properly brought before it but several other circuit courts disagreed, finding instead that the D.C. Circuit is the proper venue for these SRE challenges and creating the “circuit split” on venue that the Supreme Court is poised to resolve.