McAdams said in the letter, “We write to urge you to ensure that EPA begin implementing a more transparent, rules-based process for issuing these waivers. Until this new process commences, the Agency should refrain from issuing any additional small refinery waivers.”
He continues, “Under the previous EPA Administrator, the waivers were issued in a manner that seriously undermined Congress’s objectives when it crafted the RFS, and directly undercut many businesses’ investment-backed expectations. Under the previous EPA Administrator the Agency granted nearly 50 retroactive RFS compliance exemptions to small refineries for 2016 and 2017. EPA under the previous Administrator ignored numerous letters from Members of Congress asking for information about these exemptions. As impacted parties, we also have yet to learn to whom, at what size, when, and why these exemptions were granted. Because of this lack of transparency, the Advanced Biofuels Association (ABFA) has filed both a lawsuit against EPA and a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in hopes of getting more information about this process. Other impacted renewable fuels parties have done likewise; we understand more than 10 FOIA requests have been filed on this topic, and none have received any response.”