After a week of speculation across the fuel industry, the Environmental Protection Agency approved small-refinery exemptions amounting to 1.76 billion credits tied to the 2025 compliance year - a sharp increase from its prior projection near 990 million. To counter the bigger-than-expected relief, the administration said it will boost blend targets and make refiners without waivers effectively cover the burden for those that received them through "reallocation," a longstanding flashpoint for oil companies. The agency said it will seek to shift 100% of the 2025 shortfall into mandates for 2026 and 2027, with the proposal slated to arrive before November.
Under the rule, 18 refineries received full exemptions and 11 received partial ones; three applications were denied and two were ruled ineligible. Chevron Corp.'s Salt Lake facility and four refineries owned by Delek US Holdings Inc. secured full waivers, whereas Marathon Petroleum Corp.'s Mandan Refinery received only a partial exemption. Chevron and Delek shares rose on the news; after the reallocation plan was disclosed, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. and Bunge Global SA, the crop-trading firms, recovered earlier losses. Prices for renewable identification numbers - tradable credits many refiners purchase instead of blending - have jumped this year after the administration established record-high blend quotas and amid tightening global fuel supplies from the war in the Middle East.
Established about two decades ago to strengthen domestic demand and support rural communities, the Renewable Fuel Standard compels refiners to blend set amounts of biofuels into gasoline and diesel or buy credits from those that do. Small-refinery exemptions put the administration in the middle of competing demands from agriculture and oil - two key constituencies for President Donald Trump. The ruling changes how much refiners will pay to meet biofuel-blending obligations. Biofuel producers and growers oppose the waivers, arguing they risk undercutting demand for ethanol, biodiesel, and the corn and soybeans that go into making them at a time when farmers face steep input costs such as fertilizer alongside ballooning harvests. While the move could alienate farm-state voters ahead of November's midterm elections, officials say higher quotas and full reallocation are meant to balance the scales.
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EPA said it aims to publish the reallocation proposal before November, pushing the added obligations into 2026 and 2027. Bloomberg News said last week that Trump plans to meet with U.S. oil refining executives Tuesday amid persistently high gasoline prices "stoked by the war in Iran." The session is expected to be wide-ranging and could give some refiners an opening to raise concerns about biofuel-blending quotas.
