EPA Poised to Rule on Small Refinery Biofuel Waivers Friday

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is poised to issue decisions as soon as Friday on scores of small refinery requests to be excused from the nation’s Renewable Fuel Standard, according to people familiar with the planning. Officials are expected to address part of the backlog of 195 waiver petitions, some of which date to 2016, with outcomes ranging from approvals to partial denials rather than a blanket ruling. The administration also intends to publish a supplemental rule as early as next week seeking public comment on whether larger refiners should be required to make up for the exempted gallons of ethanol and biodiesel, a process known as reallocation. Draft language circulating inside the agency outlines several options to gauge market reaction before any final policy is set. How the Environmental Protection Agency resolves the waiver applications and the reallocation question will shape compliance-credit prices and could ripple through markets for gasoline, ethanol, soybeans and corn. In previous years, widespread exemptions without reallocation depressed prices for biofuel credits and agricultural feedstocks.