EPA Issues RVO Proposals; To Reject Over 60 SRE Petitions

  • Tuesday, 07 December 2021 15:59

The EPA today finally issued its proposed renewable volume obligation (RVO) targets for 2020, 2021 and 2022. It also separately issued a proposal to deny more than 60 pending small refinery exemption (SRE) petitions. 

Proposed RVOs

For the RVOs, the EPA is proposing 12.5 billion gallons of ethanol for 2020, 13.32 billion gallons for 2021 and 15 billion gallons for 2022. The proposed RVOs for 2020 and 2021 are reductions from the original targets of 15 billion gallons for both years. It should be noted that the RVO for 2020 had been finalized. According to the Renewable Fuels Association, the EPA's proposed RVOs for 2020 and 2021 are based on what the agency estimates was the ethanol consumption for both years.  

Additionally, the EPA said it is proposing to add 250 million gallons in supplemental obligation to the 2022 RVO and another 250 million gallons in supplemental to the 2023 RVO.

"This would address the remand of the 2014-2016 annual rule by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in Americans for Clean Energy v. EPA," the agency said. 

For more information on the proposed RVOs, click here.

SRE Rejections

In a separate announcement, the EPA is proposing to deny more than 60 SRE petitions for one or more compliance years between 2016 and 2021.

"The proposed decision results from EPA’s review of the pending SRE petitions and supporting information, its legal, technical, and policy analysis of the CAA provisions relating to small refineries, and its application of the holdings of the U.S Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in Renewable Fuels Association et al. v. EPA (RFA)," it said. 

Last month, the EPA rejected one SRE petition for the 2019 compliance year. 

For more information on this proposal, click here