2017 EnviroFlash Announcements about EPA Fuel Programs

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This page lists recent EnviroFlash announcements that have been released to update stakeholders about EPA fuel programs.

• 12/21/2017: Announcing the Final User Fee Rule and Next e-Manifest Webinar
• 12/12/2017: EMTS v4.5 Release Outage Scheduled for Monday, December 18, 2017
• 11/29/2017: Engineering Review Updates for Renewable Fuel Producers
• 10/06/2017: Notice of EPA's Intent to Disclose RFS Information Which May Be Claimed as CBI
• 06/22/2017: Changes to EPA's Fuels Program Helpdesk (revised)
• 06/08/2017: EMTS—Expiration of old RFS RINs and Fuels ABT Credits
• 06/02/2017: EMTS Unavailable Sunday, June 04 from 8:00 PM to 12:00 AM EST
• 04/20/2017: EPA-OAR Public Teleconference on April 24, 2017 from 11:00am to 2:00pm EDT
• 03/24/2017: 2016 Annual Compliance Deadline Retirement Window Closes March 31, 2017
• 03/09/2017: EPA Grants Genscape Extension to Respond to January 4, 2017 Notice Letter

Announcing the Final User Fee Rule and Next e-Manifest Webinar

December 21, 2017

Announcement of Final User Fee Rule

We are pleased to announce that on December 20th, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt signed the final rule for setting and revising fees for users of the e-Manifest system. This final "e-Manifest User Fee Rule" now completes the regulatory framework for implementing Congress' Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest Establishment Act ("e-Manifest Act") of 2012, which authorizes EPA to implement a national system and collect user fees to recover the costs of developing and operating the system. For more information about the final e-Manifest User Fee Rule, including the pre-publication version of the final rule, please visit the Final Rule for User Fees section on Learn About the Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest System (e-Manifest).

Announcement of Next e-Manifest Webinar, including API Presentation

Due to the holiday season, there will be no e-Manifest webinar on Wednesday, December 27, 2017. Instead, EPA plans to host the next e-Manifest webinar on Wednesday, January 3, 2018, from 2:00 -3:30 PM, EST. You can access the live webinar at Monthly Webinars about the Hazardous Waste Electronic Manifest (e-Manifest).

This webinar will provide an update on e-Manifest, including the Final User Fee Rule and a presentation on the e-Manifest API focusing on the Update Manifest service. It's also an opportunity to ask questions of the e-Manifest team.

For more information, contact emanifest@epa.gov

EMTS v4.5 Release Outage Scheduled for Monday, December 18, 2017

December 12, 2017

On Monday, December 18, 2017, the EPA Moderated Transaction System (EMTS) will be taken down at 5:00 PM Eastern Time for the deployment of EMTS v4.5. This release will include improved remedial action functionality for the Fuels Averaging, Banking, and Trading (ABT) credit program. Please note that there will be no changes to either the submission or reports schemas for this release.

To avoid failed submissions and other possible issues, do not attempt to submit transactions or use the EMTS web interface between 5:00 PM on December 18 and 7:00 AM on December 19, 2017.

Action Required: Do not attempt to submit transactions or use the EMTS web interface during this time period

If you have questions, please contact Fuels Programs Support at support@epamts-support.com.

Engineering Review Updates for Renewable Fuel Producers

November 29, 2017

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is announcing a change to the way we accept updated Engineering Review (ER) reports for registered renewable fuel producers and foreign ethanol producers under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) Program.

Effective immediately, the EPA will no longer accept mailed paper submissions of updated 3-year ER reports or other ad hoc updates to a registered facility’s ER report. The EPA will be transitioning to full electronic submissions and use of existing webforms for updated ER reports. To help our customers with this transition, the EPA is implementing an interim option for the way an updated ER report can be submitted and signed, including providing sufficient lead time for parties to get an account and establish appropriate roles in the EPA system. The EPA has also posted a schedule that lists the 3-year ER report due dates for all registered renewable fuel facilities and foreign ethanol facilities under the RFS program and clarified some flexibilities for facilities that submitted a full ER report out of cycle. These changes will streamline and expedite the ER report submission and review process and will bring the RFS Program more in line with modern information collection standards and practices.

More information about these announcements can be found on the Fuels Registration, Reporting, and Compliance Help website.

Notice of EPA's Intent to Disclose RFS Information Which May Be Claimed as CBI

October 6, 2017

The Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") is providing notice of disclosure of information which has been submitted to EPA by renewable fuel producers, renewable identification number ("RIN") generators, third party engineers, obligated parties, and RIN owners that is claimed to be, or has been determined to be, confidential business information ("CBI"), in civil enforcement litigation against NGL Crude Logistics, LLC (f/k/a Gavilon, LLC).

The United States does not intend to produce documents containing CBI to NGL until after potentially impacted third parties have an opportunity to inspect the Protective Order filed with the court.

More information can be found in the Federal Register: Production of Confidential Business Information in Pending Enforcement Litigation; Transfer of Information Claimed as Confidential Business Information to the United States Department of Justice and Party to Certain Litigation (pdf) (173 KB, published October 6, 2017). If there are specific questions, please contact Matthew Kryman at Kryman.matthew@epa.gov.

Changes to EPA's Fuels Program Helpdesk (revised)

June 22, 2017

This EnviroFlash is to inform you about the changes the EPA is making to the fuels helpdesk in an effort to enhance customer service and ensure greater program compliance. This effort is a two phase initiative with Phase 1 effective immediately and Phase 2 planned for later this year.

Under Phase 1, the EPA is implementing changes to its internal processes for how we receive and respond to voicemails and email inquiries to better manage questions related to registration, regulations, and technical support. Email inquiries related to registration and regulations should now be sent to the EPA via the new contact form, which can be found at this link: Fuels Program Helpdesk. The process for managing email inquiries related to technical support remains unchanged and is explained at this link as well. Parties that wish to leave a voicemail will now be able to select from menu options to better route their inquiry, helping to ensure that responses are provided in a timely manner.

As part of the process change, the EPA will be closing all open tickets submitted before June 22, 2017, that are not related to a company's registration, remedial action, or technical support for CDX/EMTS. Customers will receive an email notification if their ticket is closed. Customers have the option of resubmitting questions using the new contact form; questions will be managed under this revised process. A webpage has been created for the Fuels Program Helpdesk and is available here: Fuels Program Helpdesk.

Under Phase 2, the EPA plans to create a public Fuels Program Dashboard that intends to provide customers the status of their registration and their place in the queue. This dashboard is intended to provide greater transparency into the registration process by informing customers how long and for what reason their Fuels Program application is still under review by the EPA.

The EPA welcomes any suggestions for additional changes to help improve customer service and program compliance under the EPA's Fuels Program.

This EnviroFlash message is intended as an update to the regulated entities under the EPA's Fuels Program. This message is neither a substitute for applicable legal requirements nor a regulation. This message does not impose legally binding requirements on the EPA or the regulated industry.

EMTS—Expiration of old RFS RINs and Fuels ABT Credits

June 8, 2017

On Monday, June 19th, 2017, EPA will expire all remaining RIN year 2014 RINs that were not retired for compliance with the recent 2015 RFS compliance deadline. Once the 2014 RINs are expired, they will no longer appear in a company's RIN holdings. EPA typically expires "second year" RINs at the close of each annual compliance deadline. EMTS users are not required to take any action on their remaining 2014 RINs prior to this event.

Additionally, EPA will expire old credits under the Fuels ABT programs. This includes credits generated under the Gasoline-Sulfur program from year 2011 and credits generated under the Gasoline-Benzene program from year 2009.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Fuel's Help Desk at support@epamts-support.com.

EMTS Unavailable Sunday, June 04 from 8:00 PM to 12:00 AM EST

June 2, 2017

On Sunday, June 06, 2017 from 8:00 PM to 12:00 AM EST, the EPA Moderated Transaction System (EMTS) will be undergoing maintenance. During this time, EMTS will be unavailable in production. To avoid failed submissions and other possible issues, do not attempt to submit transactions or use EMTS during this period. If you have questions, please contact Fuels Programs Support at support@epamts-support.com.

EPA-OAR Public Teleconference on April 24, 2017 from 11:00am to 2:00pm EDT

April 20, 2017

Dear Stakeholder,

Consistent with Executive Order 13777, The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) is hosting a public teleconference on April 24, 2017 from 11:00am to 2:00pm EDT to solicit input on specific air and radiation actions that could be repealed, replaced, or modified to make them less burdensome.

On February 24, 2017, President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 13777 on Enforcing the Regulatory Agenda. The Executive Order (EO) establishes the "policy of the United States to alleviate unnecessary regulatory burdens placed on the American people." Among other things, it requires each agency to create a Regulatory Reform Task Force to evaluate existing regulations and to identify regulations that should be repealed, replaced, or modified.

OAR is holding a public meeting via teleconference on April 24, 2017 so that we can listen and learn from those directly impacted by our regulations. The focus of this teleconference will be on air and radiation actions only. We invite you to provide input on these actions during the public teleconference or by submitting comments to the EPA-wide docket using docket number: EPA-HQ-OA-2017-0190. The docket, which is accessible through www.regulations.gov, will remain open through May 15, 2017. OAR will give equal consideration to input provided through either of these methods.

Additional information on joining the teleconference and submitting comments through the docket are below. For questions about this process, please contact oarinvitations@epa.gov. For more information about this effort, please visit Regulatory Reform.

Teleconference Details:

OAR's public teleconference will be an operator assisted call. The call with start with brief remarks from EPA and the remainder of the call will be dedicated to listening to public input. Participants wishing to speak or listen do not need to register in advance for the teleconference. To hear the opening remarks, please dial in 10 minutes before the start time. You may call into the teleconference at any time during the three-hour period.

If you wish to speak, at any time, you may nominate yourself to speak by hitting *1 on your phone. Your name will be added to a queue. Speakers will be asked to deliver 3 minutes of remarks and will be called on a first come, first served basis. OAR will do our best to hear from everyone who wishes to speak. The teleconference will be transcribed and will be added to the docket. If you do not have the opportunity to speak on the call, please submit your input to the docket (docket number: EPA-HQ-OA-2017-0190). OAR will give equal consideration to input provided through either of these methods.