WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, today led several of her colleagues in a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan. The letter asks EPA to reconsider its proposed blanket denial of small refinery exemptions (SRE) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program as this runs counter to congressional intent under the Clean Air Act.

“We are puzzled by the action EPA took in these proposals, including the unprecedented and drastic step to propose a blanket denial of all 65 outstanding small refinery hardship petitions at a time of increasing gasoline prices and several small refinery closures around the nation,” the senators wrote. “The current proposal neglects not only its own economic impacts, but negates the intent of Congress in deliberately amending the Clean Air Act to allow for exemptions for small refiners that suffer disproportionate economic hardship from compliance with the RFS.”

Ranking Member Capito was joined by her colleagues, Senators John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), John Kennedy (R-La.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), and Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.).

Read the full letter here.