EPA Issues Additional Decisions on Small Refinery Exemptions
Agency Continues Work to Get Renewable Fuel Standard Program Back on Track
WASHINGTON — U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is delivering on President Trump’s promise to restore America’s energy dominance by continuing to process Small Refinery Exemption (SRE) petitions. Today, the agency is acting on 16 individual SRE petitions from eight refineries seeking an exemption from their Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) obligations for compliance years 2021–2024. In consultation with the Department of Energy (DOE), EPA reviewed and considered information submitted by each petitioning small refinery. EPA then evaluated each SRE petition consistent with the Clean Air Act and case law. After carefully reviewing all information, EPA is granting full exemptions to two petitions, granting partial exemptions to 12 petitions, and denying two petitions. Concurrent with issuing these decisions, EPA is updating the SRE website to reflect these decisions on the 16 small refineries.
Today’s announcement is part of the Trump EPA’s commitment to get the RFS program back on track with an approach that recognizes some small refineries are impacted more significantly than others and that EPA’s relief should reflect those differences. It also builds upon the agency’s decisions made on August 22, 2025, for 175 individual SRE petitions from 38 refineries. Consistent with our August Decisions Action, EPA is reaffirming the agency’s policy of returning RFS compliance credits, known as Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), previously retired for compliance when a small refinery receives an exemption for a prior compliance year. While no actual RINs will be returned today, EPA will follow standard agency policy and instruct those impacted to contact the EPA Fuels Program Helpdesk to initiate the RINs return process.
With most of the old petitions now cleared, EPA is committed to working with DOE to address new petitions as quickly as possible and within the 90-day statutory review period, a stark contrast from the Biden-Harris Administration which did not act on a single one.
Furthermore, on September 16, 2025, the agency announced a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (SNPRM) that takes into consideration the expected impacts of the August 22, 2025, SRE decisions. EPA is reviewing comments on the supplemental proposed rule as the agency continues to work on final regulations for the “Set 2” rule. As stated in the SNPRM, EPA intends to update the agency’s projections of exempted gasoline and diesel volumes in the final rule based on any additional SREs issued after the proposal, including the petition decisions in this action.
Please see EPA’s RFS program website for more information.