EPA overstepped in denying small petroleum refineries’ requests for exemptions from biofuel-blending requirements in 2022, a federal court ruled Friday.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit overturned EPA’s decision on most of the exemptions the agency denied that year, throwing the issue back to EPA for further review.
The court kept the opinion in the case filed by Sinclair Wyoming Refining and Sinclair Casper Refining under seal, giving the parties until Aug. 5 to object to any confidential information it might reveal — and setting a 2,600-word limit to make their case.
The case consolidated a number of the companies’ petitions for review, some decided in refineries’ favor and others not. Parties to the lawsuit said the court sided with the companies on most of the exemptions involved.
