August 31, 2026
On Aug. 31, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued decisions on 34 petitions from small refineries for exemptions from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2025, while proposing to reallocate 100 percent of the difference between the projected and actual exempted volumes for 2025 SREs into the 2026-27 RVO by the end of October. Lastly, EPA announced it will once again extend the 2025 RFS compliance deadline for obligated parties, moving it from Sept. 1 to Oct. 1, 2026.
For the SRE decisions, EPA is granting the following:
- Full (100 percent) exemptions: 18 petition
- Granting partial (50 percent) exemptions: 11 petitions
- Denying: 3 petitions
- Declaring Ineligible: 2 petitions
The exemptions granted to the 2025 compliance year total 1.76 billion RINs exempted from the Renewable Volume Obligation (RVO).
RINs to be Returned, Not Reissued
Similar to the Aug. 3 decision, EPA is returning RINs to refineries that already retired RINs to demonstrate 2025 compliance before receiving their exemption. EPA determined that returning RINs is the most equitable and least market-disruptive way to implement exemptions when exempted parties initially complied. By extending the compliance deadline to Oct. 1, any 2024 RINs included in the exemption will be marketable over the next 30 days.