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.
- If larger refineries cannot absorb the reallocated obligations, they may reduce fuel production or exit markets, potentially reducing competition and fuel supply in regions served by small refineries.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Small refineries gain regulatory relief and cost savings by keeping exemptions without obligation reallocation, which may lower their compliance costs and potentially stabilize fuel prices at smaller producers. However, blocking reallocation concentrates renewable fuel blending obligations on larger refineries and importers, which may increase their compliance costs and potentially raise fuel prices for consumers overall.
Who stands to gain
- small refineries (exemption preservation and cost avoidance)
- small refinery owners and operators
Named in the bill
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), small refineries, large refineries, fuel importers, Clean Air Act § 211(o)(9), Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)
Where it stands
18 cosponsors: 17 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Sep 30, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 30, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $1,360,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 6 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Mike Kennedy, the sponsor, reported $532,000 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers — $1,160,000 on 1 filing
- Pbf Holding Company LLC — $200,000 on 1 filing
- Labor & Energy Alliance — $0 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (964 characters) on Aug 31, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Bill locks small refineries into renewable fuel exemptions, shifting costs to competitors.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr5636 Report an error
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