Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-472_0pm1.pdf
Page Number: 6.0

Cite as:  594 U. S. ____ (2021) 

3 

Opinion of the Court 

year 

“until 

calendar 

obligations 

sometimes supply a major source of jobs in rural communi-
ties, Brief for State of Wyoming et al. as Amici Curiae 19– 
25.  To  protect  small  refineries  that  produce  (on  average) 
fewer  than  75,000  barrels  a  day  “for  a  calendar  year,” 
§7545(o)(1)(K), Congress created a blanket exemption from 
2011,” 
RFP 
§7545(o)(9)(A)(i).    Congress  also  directed  EPA  to  “extend
the exemption under clause (i)” for at least two years if the 
Secretary of Energy determined RFP obligations would im-
pose  “a  disproportionate  economic  hardship”  on  a  given 
small  refinery.    §7545(o)(9)(A)(ii).  Accordingly,  subpara-
graph (A) anticipated temporary relief until 2011 or at least 
2013.  In the next subparagraph, the one most squarely at
issue before us, Congress offered the possibility of still fur-
ther  relief  in  future  years:    “A  small  refinery  may  at  any 
time petition the Administrator for an extension of the ex-
emption under subparagraph (A) for the reason of dispro-
portionate economic hardship.”  §7545(o)(9)(B)(i).

Here’s how things played out for small refineries once the
law went into effect.  Under subparagraph (A)(i), all small
refineries were exempt through 2010.  See Dept. of Energy, 
Office  of  Policy  and  International  Affairs,  D.  Vashishat
et al., Small Refinery Exemption Study 25 (Mar. 2011).  In 
2011, EPA extended that exemption for 13 small refineries 
under subparagraph (A)(ii)—and it extended the exemption 
for  an  additional  11  small  refineries  under  subparagraph 
(B)(i).  Id., at 37.  As time went on, and as economic condi-
tions  fluctuated,  EPA  extended  more  exemptions  under 
subparagraph (B)(i) in some years than in others.  For ex-
ample,  EPA  granted  8  extensions  in  2013,  but  expanded 
that  number  to  31  in  2018.  EPA,  RFS  Small  Refinery 
Exemptions,  (May  20,  2021),  https://www.epa.gov/fuels-
registration-reporting-and-compliance-help/rfs-small-refinery-
exemptions.

This  case  concerns  three  small  refineries  that  initially
received an exemption, saw it lapse for a period, and then