WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Representatives Angie Craig (D-Minn.) and Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) introduced the Renewable Fuel Standard Integrity Act to reduce the secrecy currently surrounding the small refinery exemption (SRE) process and bring more certainty into the renewable fuel marketplace. Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor released the following statement in strong support of the legislation:
“We applaud the introduction of the RFS Integrity Act and the strong bipartisan effort to restore integrity and transparency to the Renewable Fuel Standard,” said Skor. “The intent of the RFS is to blend more biofuels into our nation’s transportation fuel supply every year, not have oil companies use questionable tactics to delay and avoid their blending obligations, creating a tremendous amount of uncertainty for farmers, biofuels producers, and the entire fuel supply chain.
“Recent research has found that greenhouse gas emissions from corn ethanol are 46 percent lower than gasoline. As science on biofuels continues to update and highlight the increasing environmental benefits of ethanol over gasoline, it’s critical we restore the RFS to its original intent and harness the power of biofuels to immediately address climate change concerns and decarbonize our transportation fleet. We are grateful to Rep. Craig and Rep. Johnson for their continued leadership on this issue.”
Currently, EPA does not impose a clear deadline for submitting a request for an SRE. If enacted, the RFS Integrity Act would set an annual deadline of June 1st for refineries to submit SRE petitions and bring greater transparency to SREs by no longer excluding from public disclosure the refinery’s name, the number of exempted gallons requested, and the compliance year requested.