Whether the EPA's interpretation of the Clean Air Act's small refinery exemption provision improperly expands the statutory criteria for granting renewable fuel standard compliance waivers beyond congressional intent

No question identified. : 2. The Clean Air Act establishes the Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”) program, which establishes annual “nationwide volume mandates” for the inclusion of “renewable fuel in the Nation's fuel supply.” HollyFrontier Cheyenne Refining, LLC v. Renewable Fuels Ass'n, 141 S. Ct. 2172, 2175 (2021). Each year, EPA “apportion[s] the nationwide volume mandates into individualized ones for each” obligated party—generally, refineries and importers of gasoline and diesel—by converting each mandated national volume into a “percentage standard” that is roughly equal to that volume divided by the projected total national transportation-fuel use for the upcoming year. Jd; 42 U.S.C. §$7545(0)(3); 40 C.F.R. §$80.1405(c), 80.1406(b), 80.1407, 80.2. To facilitate compliance, EPA created “a system of credits” called Renewable Identification Numbers (“RINs”). HollyFrontier, 141 S. Ct. at 2175; 42 U.S.C. $7545(0)(5); 40 C.F.R. §80.1425. A unique RIN is assigned to each gallon of renewable fuel upon its creation. 40 C.F.R. §§80.1425-1426. The RIN remains “attached” to the gallon of renewable fuel until that fuel is blended with petroleum to make transportation fuel. 40 C.F.R. §80.1429. At that point, the RIN is “separated” and may be “retired”—i.e., used to demonstrate RF'S compliance—or transferred in a public national market so that another obligated party may retire it. HollyFrontier, 141 S. Ct. at 2175; 42 U.S.C. §7545(0)(5)(B); 40 C.F.R. §§80.1427-1428, 80.1434. To fulfill its RFS obligations, each obligated party must retire the number of RINs equal to the percentage standards multiplied by the volume of petroleum it introduced into commerce. 42 U.S.C. §7545(0)(5)(A)(i); 40 C.F.R. §§80.1415, 80.1427. Unused RINs may be carried over to the next year, and there exists a perpetual “bank” of available “carryover” RINs. 87 Fed. Reg. 39,600, 39,613 (July 1, 2022); Americans for Clean Energy v. EPA, 864 F.3d 691, 714-716 (D.C. Cir. 2017); 40 C.F.R. §80.1427(a)(5)(6). Congress initially “created a blanket exemption” from RFS compliance for all “small refineries”’—ones whose annual production is below a specified level—through 2010. HAollyFrontier, 141 8. Ct. at 2175-2176. Congress allowed EPA to “extend” that exemption for individual small refineries under specific circumstances. First, the Department of Energy (“DOE”)-based extension: Congress directed DOE to “determine whether compliance with the [RFS] ... would impose a disproportionate economic hardship [‘DEH’] on small refineries,” and said EPA “shall extend the exemption” for any small refinery that DOE “determine[d] ... would be subject to [DEH] if required to comply with” its RFS obligations. 42 U.S.C. §7545(0)(9)(A)(ii). Second, the petition-based extension: Congress provided that a small refinery may “petition” EPA “for an extension of the exemption ... for the reason of? DEH. §7545(0)(9)(B)(i). “In evaluating [such] a petition,” EPA “shall consider the findings of [DOE’s earlier] study ... and other economic factors.” §7545(0)(9)(B)(ii). 3. As required, in 2011 DOE issued a study using a “scoring matrix” to “evaluate [DEH] caused by the impact of compliance with the RFS on small refineries.” C.A.JA0307, C.A.JA0337. Neither the DOE study nor the scoring matrix “considered the possibility that refineries would recover the cost of RINs through higher prices for their products.” C.A.JA0163; C.A.JA0174-0175. In 2015, however, EPA studied that issue and concluded that obligated parties have the “ability to ‘pass through’ RIN costs” by selling their wholesale petroleum fuel (“blendstock”) to blenders at a premium equal to the RIN price, C.A.JA0180-0182, and therefore “RIN price[s] hav[e] no net impact” on obligated parties’ costs, C.A.JA0403. In 2016, EPA issued a memorandum stating that it may grant exemption petitions “only ... if ... the small refinery will experience [DEH] from [RFS] compliance” and accordingly that EPA must “evaluat[e] whether RFS compliance would cau