Regulation of Fuels and Fuel Additives: Renewable Fuel Standard ...

For purposes of assessing the impacts of today's rule on small entities, small
entity is defined as: (1) a small business as defined by the Small Business
Administration’s (SBA) regulations at 13 CFR 121.201 (see table below); (2) a small
governmental jurisdiction that is a government of a city, county, town, school district or
special district with a population of less than 50,000; and (3) a small organization that is
any not-for-profit enterprise which is independently owned and operated and is not
dominant in its field. The following table provides an overview of the primary SBA
small business categories potentially affected by this regulation:
Defined as small entity by SBA if: NAICS Codes a
Industry
Gasoline refiners ≤1,500 employees and a crude
capacity of ≤125,000 bpcd b
324110
a
North American Industrial Classification System
b barrels of crude per day
2. Background - Small Refiners Versus Small Refineries
Title XV (Ethanol and Motor Fuels) of the Energy Policy Act provides, at Section
1501(a)(2) [42 U.S.C. 7545(o)(9)(A)-(D)], special provisions for “small refineries”, such
as a temporary exemption from the standards until calendar year 2011. The Act defines
the term “small refinery” as “…a refinery for which the average aggregate daily crude oil
throughput for a calendar year…does not exceed 75,000 barrels.” This term is different
from a small refiner, which is what the Regulatory Flexibility Act is concerned with. A
small refiner is a small business that meets the criteria set out in SBA’s regulations at 13
CFR 121.201; whereas a small refinery, per the Energy Policy Act, is a refinery where
the annual crude throughput is less than or equal to 75,000 barrels (i.e., a small-capacity
refinery), and could be owned by a larger refiner that exceeds SBA’s small entity size
standards.
Previous EPA fuel regulations have afforded regulatory flexibility provisions to
small refiners, as we believe that refineries owned by small businesses generally face
unique economic challenges, compared to larger refiners. As small refiners generally
lack the resources available to larger companies (including those larger companies that
own small-capacity refineries) to raise capital for any necessary investments for meeting
regulatory requirements, these flexibility provisions were provided to reduce the
disproportionate burden on those refiners that qualified as small refiners.
3. Summary Of Potentially Affected Small Entities
The refiners that are potentially affected by this proposed rule are those that
produce gasoline. For our recent proposed rule “Control of Hazardous Air Pollutants
From Mobile Sources” (71 FR 15804, Wednesday, March 29, 2006), we performed an
industry characterization of potentially affected gasoline refiners; we used that industry
characterization to determine which refiners would also meet the SBA definition of a
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