Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-472_0pm1.pdf
Page Number: 12.0

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

9 

Opinion of the Court 

Further statutory clues confirm this understanding.  Re-
call that subparagraph (B)(i) authorizes small refineries to
seek  hardship  exemptions  “at  any  time.”  42  U. S. C. 
§7545(o)(9)(B)(i).  Far from indicating that a refinery may 
apply for an exemption in a future year only if it has always 
received  one  in  the  past,  this  language  suggests  a  much
more “expansive meaning.”  United States v. Gonzales, 520 
U. S. 1, 5 (1997).  “At any time” does not connote a demand 
for some rigid continuity so much as its opposite—including 
the possibility that small refineries might apply for exemp-
tions in different years in light of market fluctuations and 
changing  hardship  conditions,  whether  consecutively  or 
otherwise.1 

We find another feature telling too.  Next door, subpara-
graph (A) uses the term “extension” without a continuity re-
quirement.  To see how subparagraph (A) was designed, im-
agine a small refinery avails itself of the blanket exemption 
in 2008 and 2009 under subparagraph (A)(i).  Then in 2010, 
because of an increase in production capacity, the refinery
loses “small refinery” status under §7545(o)(1)(K) and with
it the blanket exemption that “appl[ies] to small refineries.” 
§7545(o)(9)(A)(i).  One year later, production capacity falls
and the refinery moves back into small refinery status for 
2011.  If that refinery applies for an “extension” under sub-
paragraph (A)(ii), the statute provides that EPA “shall ex-
tend the exemption under clause (i),” so long as the Secre-
tary  of  Energy  found  the  refinery  would  suffer  a 

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1 On the dissent’s account, this language merely permits a small refin-
ery to seek an extension for the following year after EPA’s November 30 
deadline for publishing the coming year’s RFP mandates.  Post, at 10– 
11.  But to pursue this interpretation we would effectively have to read 
words into the statute.  A provision promising small refineries that they
may seek an extension “at any time” would become a provision promising
them only the chance to seek an extension “for the following year at any 
time  before  or  after  EPA’s  November  30  deadline  for  publishing  next 
year’s RFP mandates.”