WASHINGTON, D.C. (NAFB) – The U.S. Supreme Court could hear oral arguments in the long-running feud between the ethanol and oil industries and the Environmental Protection Agency over small-refinery ethanol waivers.

Renewable Fuels Association’s Geoff Cooper says the high court could soon take up the appeal by HollyFrontier and CVR Energy of the refiners’ lower court loss in defending ethanol waivers they received from EPA.

The Supreme Court agreed to review a Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that overturned several small refinery ethanol waivers by EPA that the agency is now stepping back from.

RFA, National Corn Growers, National Farmers Union, and the American Coalition for Ethanol won the lower court ruling against the retroactive waivers that they claim cost the industry more than four billion gallons in lost demand. The groups argued EPA lacks the authority to grant retroactive waivers in non-consecutive years, and the oil refiners suffered no economic harm since they simply passed along the biofuel costs to customers.