Sponsors (54)
The bill increases compliance flexibility and consumer/retailer fuel choice for the fuel industry and some businesses, but risks worsening summertime ozone-related health impacts and raises fairness and legal/administrative concerns for other refiners and regulators.
Small refineries and other fuel producers can have RIN/credit balances returned or applied to their EPA EMTS accounts, restoring compliance flexibility and reducing near-term cost pressures for those businesses.
Fuel retailers and consumers gain access to a wider range of summertime fuel formulations because allowable Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) adjustments expand from a single 10% standard to a 10–15% range, increasing product choice.
Fuel manufacturers and distributors face clearer waiver and RVP rule language, which could streamline EPA decisionmaking and reduce regulatory uncertainty for affected industry participants.
Residents near fuel distribution and storage (including rural communities) could experience higher summertime ozone and related respiratory harms because broader RVP allowances and 'similar fuel' bypass provisions may increase volatile organic emissions.
Other refiners and compliant businesses may view returning retired credits as retroactive relief that undermines fairness and creates competitive inequities among refiners who did not receive such adjustments.
Changing statutory text and inserting a new act title could create legal ambiguity or procedural complications that trigger additional EPA rulemaking, potential litigation, and administrative costs for regulators and regulated entities.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Modifies Clean Air Act RVP waiver language and numeric range and requires certain retired small-refinery credits from 2016–2018 to be returned or posted to refinery EPA accounts.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by Adrian Smith · Last progress February 13, 2025
Amends parts of the Clean Air Act to change how fuel Reid Vapor Pressure (RVP) waivers work and to set rules for certain small refinery credits from compliance years 2016–2018. The bill restructures waiver language, expands an RVP numeric range, allows substantially similar fuels or additives to enter commerce under specified RVP conditions, and requires some retired small-refinery credits to be returned or posted to the refinery’s EPA account under defined conditions.