Advanced Biofuels Association v. EPA

In an unpublished judgment, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed a proceeding challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA’s) apparent modification of the criteria for a “small refinery” exemption from Renewable Fuel Program requirements. The court found that the petitioner—a biofuels trade group—failed to identify a final agency action at the time the petition was filed in May 2018. The court indicated that “EPA’s briefing and oral argument paint a troubling picture of intentionally shrouded and hidden agency law that could have left those aggrieved by the agency’s actions without a viable avenue for judicial review” but concluded that it was not necessary to determine “whether or how an ongoing pattern of genuinely secret law might be challenged” because EPA had publicly issued a memorandum in August 2019 that announced a new decisional framework for exemptions.