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On August 22, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) announced decisions on 175 small refinery exemption (“SRE”) petitions stretching back over the last four years.

As the Trump administration continues to roll out its sweeping tariff policy, the North American energy industry is working to address the effects of the President’s tariff strategy. The Trump administration intends to “unleash American energy,”¹ in part by imposing tariffs designed to remedy what the administration views as unfair trade practices and increase U.S. domestic energy production. The currently imposed and threatened tariffs will inevitably impact the energy industry and its consumers. The particularly relevant tariffs can be defined in two broad categories: (1) sectoral tariffs, in this case, imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and (2) the country-specific and “reciprocal tariffs” that the Trump administration has imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

In this article published by Energy Intelligence, Bader Thabti and Eleanor Connolly* explore how the European Commission’s draft regulation on low-carbon fuels could complicate U.S. exports. As the EU pushes forward with its climate goals, new rules on emissions accounting, certification, and methane tracking are raising concerns among U.S. producers, particularly around the recognition of existing non-EU frameworks.

Published by SAF Investor, this article highlights Japan’s growing leadership in the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) space. Backed by strong government policy, industrial investment, and innovative feedstock strategies, Japan aims to replace 10% of its jet fuel consumption with SAF by 2030.

On July 4, 2025, President Trump signed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (H.R. 1 119^th Congress) (“OBBBA”) into law.

In the afternoon of June 16, 2025, the Senate Finance Committee (“SFC”) released its proposed legislative text of the tax title for the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” H.R. Con. Res. 14, 119th Cong. (2025) (the “Reconciliation Bill”).

On June 17, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published its proposed “Set 2” rule under the Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”) program (the “Set 2 Rule”).

On May 22, 2025, the House passed budget reconciliation legislation referred to as “The One, Big, Beautiful Bill” (the “Bill”).

The recent tariffs imposed by the Trump administration mark a significant shift in U.S. trade policy that is expected to have a wide-ranging impact across multiple sectors, including in the energy sector.

On April 8 and 9, 2025, President Donald Trump issued five Presidential Actions (four Executive Orders and one Proclamation, collectively “Presidential Actions”) for the purposes of ensuring adequate and reliable energy generation, meeting growing energy demand, and addressing the national energy emergency declared on January 20, 2025 (EO 14156).

This update is a summary of the Energy-related Executive Orders that have been issued this week by the Administration.

If past is prologue, while the second Trump administration is expected to take a number of actions that could lead to increased volatility with respect to renewable identification number (“RIN”) prices just as the first did, there are signals that the administration may take a more deliberate approach this time to reduce shocks to the RIN market, all the more given the interest in supporting renewable fuel production as a domestic fuel source. And while the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) took steps last year that impact the ability of biogas projects to generate Low Carbon Fuel Standard (“LCFS”) credits, state legislative headwinds could eventually result in the opening of new environmental credit markets to shore up demand for renewable natural gas (“RNG”). Overall, while significant uncertainty and risk of RIN volatility remains, there continue to be signals from both the federal executive and legislative branches in support of the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (“RFS”).