hmmm..

So Wheeler at EPA is passing the buck to the Dept of Energy and Rick Perry from Texas... 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biofuels-waivers/epa-changed-rules-to-help-profitable-refiners-get-biofuel-waivers-lawsuit-idUSKCN1QO2A2

(Reuters) - U.S. environmental regulators quietly changed the way they assess applications from refineries for waivers from the nation’s biofuels law, making it possible for highly profitable plants to secure lucrative exemptions, according to court documents filed by a biofuels trade group on Thursday.

The new documents, part of a lawsuit that began last year, could provide the most complete explanation to date of how the Environmental Protection Agency vastly expanded the number of small refinery hardship biofuel waivers under former Administrator Scott Pruitt, including by granting exemptions to oil majors Exxon Mobil and Chevron.

The expansion of the waiver program saved the oil industry hundreds of millions of dollars but angered farmers in the nation’s heartland, who said it crushed the credit prices that are an integral part of the ethanol industry.

According to the documents, filed by the Advanced Biofuels Association (ABFA), the EPA in 2017 stopped considering whether compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) would prevent a refinery from making money and being competitive.

Instead, the agency considered primarily whether compliance would cause a “disproportionate” impact on the facility, an easier hurdle to clear.
Under the RFS, refiners must mix biofuels like ethanol with their gasoline and diesel, but smaller refineries can be exempted if they can prove that complying would cause them measurable financial harm.
ABFA, which represents 35 companies responsible for 4.4 billion gallons of renewable fuel production around the globe, is asking a federal judge to rule whether the EPA’s expansion of the waiver program was legal, which they argue depresses demand for their biofuel.

The Department of Energy traditionally scored the hardship applications on a two-prong matrix that considered whether the RFS posed a disproportionate hardship, and whether the plant could remain viable if required to comply.

Prior to May 2017, a refinery would have to pass both tests to get an exemption, ABFA alleged, citing EPA correspondence with a refiner it said it had obtained.

hmmm.. again how can refiners meet the "Hardship waiver" when there are AMPLE stocks of Ethanol.. so much so that we just had RECORD Exports?

How can EPA show Hardship when it costs MORE to use RBOB vs Ethanol?

Especially when they LOST the Suit brought by Americans for Clean Energy vs EPA in the DC court of Appeals

 ( https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/supreme-court-nominee-brett-kavanaugh-good-for-ethanol )

"We reject all of those challenges, except for one: We agree with Americans for Clean Energy and its aligned petitioners that EPA erred in how it interpreted the 'inadequate domestic supply' waiver provision," Kavanaugh  (yes THAT Judge Brett Kavanaugh who now is a Supreme Court Justice..) wrote in penning unanimous three-judge decision.

He ruled that EPA did not have the authority to apply the supply waiver as it had done in setting the annual Renewable Fuel Standard in the preceding year, and must therefore redo the fuel targets under the correct interpretation of the law,which was a victory for ethanol supporters.

Kavanaugh wrote that the law "does not allow EPA to consider the volume of renewable fuel that is available to ultimate consumers or the demand-side constraints that affect the consumption of renewable fuel by consumers."

The only authority that EPA has in reducing the amount of ethanol and renewable fuel refiners can blend is if there is a lack of supply of corn ethanol. This was not the case for either the 2015 or the 2016 annual biofuel requirements.

"We therefore grant Americans for Clean Energy’s petition for review of the 2015 Final Rule, vacate EPA’s decision to reduce the total renewable fuel volume requirements for 2016 through use of its 'inadequate domestic supply' waiver authority, and remand the rule to EPA for further consideration in light of our decision," Kavanaugh wrote.

In that ruling, he said the oil industry and refiners arguments were not strong enough to be granted regulatory relief from having to abide by the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Judge Brett Kavanaugh considered arguments by the oil refiners challenging EPA’s "neutral aim" and "accuracy" in setting the annual target for liquid cellulosic biofuels. They also raised "several arbitrary and capricious challenges to EPA’s decisionmaking" on the 2016 Renewable Fuel Standard annual targets. But none the arguments persuaded the court.

There is simply NO REASON to WAIVE Ethanol in the RFS as LACK of SUPPLY has NOT been the case.. we have had ABUNDANT and CHEAP Ethanol (often referred to as a Surplus) for the past 7 + years.  And is cited as a reason for as much as 600 myn gallons of ethanol capacity to be shut in here recently.

For CRYING OUT LOUD we just had RECORD ETHANOL EXPORTS in 2018!!

https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/perspectives/blogs/ethanol-blog/blog-post/2019/03/06/us-hits-record-high-ethanol-exports