RFA and Growth Energy file opening brief in EPA’s SRE Supreme Court

In Washington, the Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy recently filed their opening brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Environmental Protection Agency v. Calumet Shreveport Refining, LLC, Case No. 23-1229. The case seeks to overturn an opinion from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit regarding the proper venue for adjudicating the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) denials of several petitions for small refinery exemptions (SREs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

In their brief, RFA and Growth Energy argue that the Fifth Circuit had erred and that challenges to those SRE petition denials should be adjudicated solely in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit because EPA’s SRE policy is “nationally applicable” and “based on a determination of nationwide scope or effect.” In support, the organizations argue in their brief that EPA “prescribed general standards” for adjudicating SRE petitions irrespective of their location that, when applied, “inherently affect . . . obligations for all” obligated refineries and renewable fuels producers “throughout the country.”