EPA’s online dashboard shows the agency has now received nearly 100 petitions for small refinery exemptions to the Renewable Fuel Standard mandates dating back to 2011.
Since June, EPA has received two new petitions for each of 2011 and 2012, three new petitions for each of 2013, 2014 and 2015, plus one more for 2016 reported POLITICO.
That brings the number of requests for the so-called gap year petitions to 65, and the total number of pending waiver requests to 98.
The issue of exemptions directly affected the Wynnewood refinery in southern Oklahoma. It was one of the firms that lost a U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling this year against earlier-approved exemptions by the EPA. 
Earlier in the week, President Trump told Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) he would personally take up the issue of the exemptions, though his administration appears poised to wait until after the November election to make any decisions rather than risk alienating the powerful agricultural or petroleum sectors.
Source: POLITICO
