The Supreme Court declined on May 18 to consider a case that addressed whether the Environmental Protection Agency needs to consider every year whether to move downstream the requirement to buy RINs under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
05-19-2020 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should obligate itself to align the volume of renewable fuel it waives under its "small" refinery exemption program with volume it reallocates to other obligated […]
12-02-2019 NATSO member Beth Westemeyer, Director of Business Development for Anew Travel and Fuel Centers, the retail arm of Zeeland Farm Services in Zeeland, Mich., testified Oct. 30 at the Environmental […]
11-01-2019 NATSO, representing America’s travel plazas and truckstops, today issued the following statement on the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to implement the RFS deal that President Trump negotiated less than two weeks ago. The following statement may be attributed to NATSO Vice President of Government Affairs, David Fialkov.
10-15-2019 U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) led a group of 12 senators in urging Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler to stop granting small refineries hardship exemptions from their biofuel blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
06-19-2019 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is considering changing its policy to allow it to identify those refiners seeking small refinery waivers that exempt them from their obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). According to a request for comment released by EPA on April 12, the agency is seeking public comment on whether it should disclose petitioners’ names, identify facilities and locations as well as describe the relief requested. Currently, most information about RFS waiver applicants is considered to be confidential.
04-15-2019 The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA” or the “Agency”) recently proposed new regulations (“Proposed Rule” or the “Proposal”) pertaining to implementation of the Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS” or the “Program”). The […]
03-22-2019 In the coming weeks, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is expected to propose regulations that would reform the market for Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), which are the “credits” EPA uses to ensure that refiners satisfy their obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Although the supposed purpose of these reforms is to “improve transparency” and limit volatility in RIN markets, the reforms under consideration would cause more harm than good. In fact, as NATSO’s “RIN Market Volatility” Chart demonstrates, wild RIN price swings over the past several years have been caused by policy announcements, rumors, and news reports, rather than any underlying flaw in RIN markets themselves.
02-21-2019 The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it will require 19.92 billion gallons of biofuel to be blended into the nation’s fuel system under its 2019 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). But in issuing the numbers, the agency failed to address NATSO’s concerns about its practice of issuing small refinery waivers that exempt small refineries from their obligations under the RFS — even small refineries that are owned by profitable refining entities such as Andeavor.
11-30-2018 NATSO on Oct. 26 filed comments with the Environmental Protection Agency in response to the Agency’s proposed changes to fuel economy requirements that were previously finalized by the Obama Administration. NATSO expressed support for the agency’s efforts to tie Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFÉ) standards to today’s market realities while also providing the agency several ideas for how it could improve a new standard to better achieve its regulatory objectives.
10-27-2018 The Environmental Protection Agency on June 26 released its proposed renewable volume obligations for 2019 under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The proposal also includes a proposed 2020 volume mandate for biomass-based diesel. The proposal would increase advanced biofuels volume requirements for 2019 and biodiesel requirements for 2020 while holding the so-called “ethanol” volume requirement steady.
06-27-2018