MCGA: SRE waivers won’t reduce gas prices
In response to the EPA’s granting of small refinery exemption (SRE) waivers for 2025 totaling nearly 1.8 billion Renewable Fuel Standard compliance credits, known as Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs), Minnesota Corn Growers Association (MCGA) President Wes Beck issued the following statement:
“Reducing biofuel blending obligations will pad the pockets of Big Oil, but it won’t provide drivers with much-needed relief at the pump. Nor will it provide relief to farmers struggling with record input prices, low commodity prices, and volatile weather patterns. In fact, by injecting uncertainty in annual biofuel demand through unjustified SRE waivers will hamper American agriculture. That’s just the opposite of what family farmers need right now.
The record is clear: biofuels help reduce costs for drivers and bolster American energy independence. In Minnesota and across the nation, data shows that biofuel blends like E15 provide drivers with meaningful savings at the pump. We do recognize that the Trump administration has pledged to fully reallocate a portion of biofuel volumes exempted in a future action. We will hold the administration accountable to fulfill that promise. We urge the Trump administration to take meaningful steps to expand opportunities for biofuels and not hamper them through bailouts to Big Oil. MCGA is extremely disappointed in this move because it rewards an industry making record profits (oil) – SRE grantee HF Sinclair, for example, reported its refining segment income before interest and income taxes was $877 million for the second quarter of 2026, compared to $166 million for the second quarter of 2025. This comes at the expense of family farmers who have been dealing with record low farm income.”
About Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs) and Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs)
Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, the EPA is required to set annual blending targets for biofuels, known as RVOs, that must be met by obligated parties—oil refineries and fuel importers. To satisfy their RVO targets, the obligated parties can either blend biofuels into their supply or purchase compliance credits, known as Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits, from other obligated parties.
The RVOs cover a range of specific biofuel types, from cellulosic biofuels and biomass-based diesel to advanced biofuels. The remainder of the obligation can be hit with conventional biofuel, which is typically corn starch ethanol.
EPA finalized the 2026-27 RVO targets, known as Set 2, in March, establishing the implied 15-billion-gallon annual target for conventional renewable fuels along with the expansion of targets for biomass-based diesel. In total, EPA established record RFS obligations of 26.8 billion RINs for 2026 and 27 billion RINs for 2027. The 15-billion-gallon implied target for conventional renewable fuels was a robust figure that stood to provide meaningful growth opportunities for biofuel blends like E15.
Set 2 also appeared to provide more predictability around small refinery exemptions (SREs), which are used to excuse small refineries (less than 75,000 barrels per day) facing disproportionate economic hardship from RVO obligations. Specifically, the rule reallocated 70% of 2023 and 2024 exempted volumes into the 2026-27 targets, along with 70% of the exempted volume projected for 2025—about 693 million of the 990 million in exempted volume for the year.
Unfortunately, the decision by EPA will double that exempted volume for 2025 to nearly 1.8 billion without a corresponding increase in reallocation of RVO volumes. EPA said it will reallocate the portion of exempted volumes that exceed what was assumed in the Set 2 Rule in a future action, but until that promise is fulfilled, the decision leaves uncertainty for corn farmers and biofuel producers.
