By Jarrett Renshaw
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday began clearing a backlog of requests from small oil refineries for exemptions from the nation’s biofuel laws, granting 63 of the requests and denying 28, with 77 receiving partial approvals.
The approvals mark a win for numerous small U.S. refiners that for years had argued a federal mandate to blend biofuels like ethanol into the country’s fuel supply is a significant financial hardship.
The small refinery exemptions amount to some 5.34 billion RINS – tradable compliance credits generated by blending biofuels into the nation’s fuel pool – across multiple years, according to data posted to the EPA’s website.
Prior to Friday’s announcement, there were 204 pending applications dating back to 2016, and the decision leaves 13 undecided, according to the EPA data.
The EPA intends to start gathering public comment as soon as next week on whether larger refiners should make up for the exempted gallons in a process known as reallocation, sources told Reuters on Thursday. The EPA did not comment.
(Reporting By Jarrett Renshaw and Richard V; Editing by David Gregorio, Susan Heavey and Jan Harvey)
