Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/20pdf/20-472_0pm1.pdf
Page Number: 29

10 

HOLLYFRONTIER CHEYENNE REFINING, LLC v. 
RENEWABLE FUELS ASSN. 
BARRETT, J., dissenting 

EPA can appropriately adjust the RFP requirements it sets, 
the statute requires EPA to review “the feasibility of achiev-
ing compliance” and “impacts of ” the RFP on regulated re-
fineries.  §§7545(o)(11)(B)–(C).  And if compliance is not fea-
sible in a given year, the RFP allows individual refineries
to carry a compliance deficit into the next year.  See ante, 
at  2  (discussing  §7545(o)(5)(D)).  Recall  too  that  in  cases 
where compliance would work severe economic harm on a 
State or a region, the general-waiver provision allows EPA 
in  part.
to  waive  the  requirements 
§7545(o)(7)(A)(i).    Economic  concerns  are  at  the  center  of 
other RFP waiver provisions as well.  See §7545(o)(7)(E)(ii)
(waiver  based  on  price  of  biomass-based  diesel  fuel); 
§§7545(o)(8)(A)–(D)  (waiver  based  on  “significant  adverse 
impacts on consumers,” including impacts on “supplies and
prices”).  Congress’ direct concern with economic difficulties 
in separate provisions further undermines HollyFrontier’s 
argument that Congress must have meant to vindicate such 
concerns by granting EPA broad waiver power in subpara-
graph (B)(i). 

in  whole  or 

2 

The Court’s structural counters are not persuasive. 
First,  the  Court  cites  the  statute’s  instruction  that  a 
small  refinery  can  file  a  subparagraph  (B)(i)  petition  “ ‘at
any time.’ ”  See ante, at 9 (quoting §7545(o)(9)(B)(i)).  This 
argument  falls  apart  on  close  inspection.  “[A]t  any  time” 
informs when a refinery may file an “extension” request; it
cannot change the type of request that EPA can grant.  By 
using  the  phrase  “at  any  time,”  the  statute  gives  a  small 
refinery with an exemption flexibility about when to file a 
request to extend that exemption for the following year.

This  reading  does  not  leave  “at  any  time”  without  im-
portant work to do.  For one, the phrase means that refin-
eries need not seek exemptions before EPA’s fuel standards 
are due—which is November 30 in the calendar year before