Some biofuels groups are not finished in their fight to stop 31 oil refineries including one in Oklahoma from receiving exemptions from U.S. biofuel blending obligations. Neither is the Justice Department.
A coalition of biofuel operators filed a brief this week with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the Trump administration’s 2019 decision to grant waivers to CVR Energy, operator of the Wynnewood refinery and to other refinery owners across the U.S. In that ruling the court sided with the biofuel industry against CVR Energy and two other refinery companies.
The Justice Department also asked the Supreme Court not to review a Denver federal appeals court decision that went against CVR and other small refineries.
“The decision below does not meet this Court’s ordinary criteria for granting certiorari,” DOJ wrote in its filing reported POLITICO.
CVR and 30 other small refinery operators were originally granted waivers from mandated biofuel production in 2018, waivers that were challenged in court by the Renewable Fuels Association, the National Corn Growers Association and the National Farmers Union. They won in a case before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver and this week filed more briefs in the D.C. court, contending the EPA didn’t have the authority to make the original waivers because they had not been approved continuously in the preceding years.
The refineries, under U.S. law have to blend billions of gallons of biofuels into their fuel or buy tradable credits from those that do. Small refineries like CVR sought waivers stating that the law would result in high costs for them.
In September, CVR along with HollyFrontier Corp, operator of a refinery in Tulsa filed petitions asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Denver federal appeals court ruling.
Meanwhile, CVR is in the midst of a study and cost analysis of creating a renewable diesel project at the Wynnewood refinery. The move was seen as one by CVR to get relief from the rising RINS prices and the falling demand for gasoline.
CVR’s CEO Dave Lamp made the announcement during the company’s second quarter results call and explained the project would involve converting an existing hydrocracker to allow for the production of renewable diesel. Cost of the project would be around $100 million.
