Growth Energy files two court petitions for rehearing of SRE case

In Washington, Growth Energy this week filed two petitions for rehearing with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the Court’s 2023 decision on small refinery exemptions (SREs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). 

The RFS allows small refiners to request exemptions from the program’s fuel blending obligations if they can demonstrate to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that compliance with the RFS would impose a “disproportionate economic hardship.” EPA has denied several of these requests over the past few years, reflecting numerous well-established analyses that have shown that refineries nearly always recoup their RFS compliance costs. However, in November, the Fifth Circuit sided with a group of six refineries, ruling that EPA improperly denied their SRE requests.