August SREs Petitions Increase 12 to 98; 67 are Gap-Year Requests

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) received 12 new temporary exemption petition requests during the month of August. Of the 12, nine were gap-year petition. Gap-year requests are likely being made in hopes of establishing a year-by-year claim of having received an exemption every year since blanket exemptions were discontinued.  Having this chain of command would allow refiners to get around the January 24^thappellate court ruling, which stated these exemptions are to be treated as extensions from the original exemption.  Once a party fails to apply, or is denied, they are no longer eligible for the temporary exemption.

The EPA small refinery exemption (SRE) dashboard shows there are 98 total SREs pending and 67 are gap-year petitions. 

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