The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has decided not to hold a re-hearing on a case alleging the EPA improperly granted small refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard in 2017 and 2018.. Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper says that’s a victory for the biofuels industry and now the EPA must apply the original 10th. Court ruling and apply it to pending small refinery exemption requests.

He says if the EPA does now what they should do and apply the original court ruling nationally, only at the most, two of the pending RFS exemption requests will be granted.

Cooper says earlier EPA officials said they were waiting for the Appeals Court’s ruling before moving ahead with implementation of the RFS as the 10th Circuit Court originally ruled. He says now they should no longer delay with following the RFS as it’s intended.

Now with the Appeal’s Court’s decision not to rehear the case, the small refiners have 90 days to decide whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.