Bill locks small refineries into renewable fuel exemptions, shifting costs to competitors.
H.R. 5636 — Protect Consumers from Reallocation Costs Act of 2025 · Filed by Mike Kennedy (R-UT) · 18 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 30, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Clean Air Act to prevent the EPA from reallocating renewable fuel blending obligations away from small refineries that receive exemptions. Currently, when a small refinery gets a hardship exemption from blending renewable fuels, the EPA can shift that obligation to other refineries; this bill blocks that reallocation and requires the small refinery's production to still count toward the total fuel pool for calculating obligations.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a narrow carve-out from EPA's reallocation authority under the Renewable Fuel Standard, benefiting small refineries by locking in their exemptions and preventing cost-shifting to competitors.
What the text implies
- Blocking reallocation may concentrate renewable fuel blending obligations on larger refineries and fuel importers, potentially raising their compliance costs and passing those costs to consumers at the pump.
- The bill preserves small refinery exemptions without requiring them to contribute to the renewable fuel pool, effectively subsidizing small refineries' compliance costs by shifting obligations to larger competitors.
The full analysis lists 3 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
small refineries (exemption preservation and cost avoidance); small refinery owners and operators