WASHINGTON, D.C. – Growth Energy applauded the inclusion of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Integrity Act in clean energy legislation (H.R. 4447) that passed the U.S. House today. The RFS Integrity Act, authored by Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture Collin Peterson (D-MN), along with Reps. Dusty Johnson (SD-At Large), Dave Loebsack (IA-04), Rodney Davis (IL-13), and Roger Marshall (KS-01), would bring much-needed transparency to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) secretive small refinery exemption (SRE) process and ensure refiners meet biofuel blending requirements.
“After years of EPA mismanagement, this legislation would finally give farmers and biofuel producers a long-overdue peek at EPA’s secretive and destructive process,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “EPA’s lack of transparency on refinery exemptions sends mixed signals to the market and leaves billions of gallons of demand at the mercy of regulatory whim. This long-overdue fix would begin to close the book on abuse and put rural America on a stable footing while we rebuild the agricultural supply chain. We’re grateful to Chairman Peterson and his co-sponsors for their efforts to get this critical legislation through the House of Representatives and on to the Senate.”
Background:
Currently, refiners have no clear deadline from EPA for submitting a request for an SRE. The bipartisan Renewable Fuel Standard Integrity Act explicitly sets the deadline for refineries to submit an application for an SRE by June 1st in the year prior to the year in which the biofuel targets go into effect. Additionally, the legislation increases transparency into the SRE application process, allowing the public greater insight into who is receiving these waivers and why.
