NACS, along with NATSO and SIGMA, filed a brief on December 18 with the U.S. Supreme Court in a case involving challenges to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decisions regarding its process for deciding whether to grant waivers of its Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) for small refineries. The brief emphasized that the U.S. fuels market is national in scope and that RFS waiver applications for refiners should be treated on a national basis.
The case will decide where a refinery challenging the EPA’s denial of an application for a waiver from compliance with the RFS can bring a lawsuit. The refinery in this case, Calumet Shreveport Refining, brought the case in the Fifth Circuit, but the EPA maintains that the case needed to be filed in the DC Circuit.
NACS filed its brief to ensure the Supreme Court understands that the market for renewable identification numbers (RINs) is a national one and that court decisions relating to a refiner’s obligations impact the entire program. The cost of a RIN is also factored into the cost of motor fuels throughout the country.
The brief argued, “Local U.S. fuel markets do not function in isolation. Rather, they are connected by extensive transportation networks, and buyers and sellers in one place inevitably influence prices elsewhere. The EPA rule here hinged on a determination that the same national market forces shape fuel prices across the country, including refineries’ ability to pass on RIN costs as part of those fuel prices.”
The brief is designed to ensure that the Supreme Court understands the fuels market when it rules on cases impacting this part of convenience stores’ business. An informed Court is much more likely to render good judgments when considering issues that are integral to the proper functioning of the fuels market. The full brief filed by NACS can be found here.