Spent Petroleum Catalyst Recycling and Critical Minerals and Metals Recovery Exemption Act

II 119TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3879 To ensure domestic sources of the critical mineral vanadium necessary for the steel, infrastructure, energy, and defense needs of the United States, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES FEBRUARY 12, 2026 Mr. HUSTED introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works A BILL To ensure domestic sources of the critical mineral vanadium necessary for the steel, infrastructure, energy, and de- fense needs of the United States, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Spent Petroleum Cata-4 lyst Recycling and Critical Minerals and Metals Recovery 5 Exemption Act’’. 6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 7 Congress finds the following: 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:11 Feb 17, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3879.IS S3879kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •S 3879 IS (1) In accordance with Executive Order 14272 1 (90 Fed. Reg. 16437; relating to ensuring national 2 security and economic resilience through section 232 3 actions on processed critical minerals and derivative 4 products), it is vital to maintain a supply of critical 5 minerals for the domestic manufacturing and de-6 fense industries to protect the United States from 7 strategic supply-chain threats of foreign economic 8 and military enemies, such as China and Russia. Va-9 nadium, a critical mineral, can be obtained domesti-10 cally from recycling spent petroleum catalyst to 11 produce ferrovanadium—a critical component in 12 high-strength steel used across the United States 13 steel, defense, infrastructure, and energy sectors— 14 thereby reducing dependence on foreign sources, 15 such as China and Russia. 16 (2) Units that recover vanadium and other met-17 als and critical minerals from spent petroleum cata-18 lyst legitimately recycle spent petroleum catalyst 19 solely for metals recovery, not for waste incineration 20 or energy recovery. Those units can include thermal 21 treatment units (such as roasters) that recycle spent 22 petroleum catalyst into an intermediate product suit-23 able for metals recovery and metallurgical units 24 (such as furnaces and hydrometallurgical units) that 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:11 Feb 17, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3879.IS S3879kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 •S 3879 IS recover the metals from spent petroleum catalyst or 1 intermediate products. When legitimately recycled in 2 that manner, spent petroleum catalyst is eligible for 3 exclusions from classification as a solid waste under 4 the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et 5 seq.), such as the transfer-based exclusion under sec-6 tion 261.4(a)(24) of title 40, Code of Federal Regu-7 lations. 8 (3) The recovery of metals, including vanadium, 9 from spent petroleum catalyst can be a 3-step proc-10 ess. First, oil refineries substantially partially re-11 claim the spent petroleum catalyst through a de-oil-12 ing process, or other process, to reduce volume and 13 recover hydrocarbons. Second, thermal treatment, in 14 a unit such as a roaster, is utilized to recycle spent 15 petroleum catalyst by converting vanadium, other 16 metals, or both from sulfides to oxides to produce an 17 intermediate product suitable for metals recovery. 18 Third, a metallurgical unit such as a furnace or 19 hydrometallurgical unit is used to recover the vana-20 dium or other valuable metals using spent petroleum 21 catalyst or the intermediate product. Those steps do 22 not need to occur at the same facility. 23 (4) The notice of the Environmental Protection 24 Agency entitled ‘‘Hazardous Waste Management 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:11 Feb 17, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3879.IS S3879kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •S 3879 IS System; Identification and Listing of Hazardous 1 Waste: Petroleum Refining Process Wastes; Land 2 Disposal Restrictions for Newly Identified Wastes; 3 and CERCLA Hazardous Substance Designation 4 and Reportable Quantities’’ (60 Fed. Reg. 57747 5 (November 20, 1995)) stated the following: 6 (A) De-oiling crude oil tank sediment— 7 which reduces waste volumes and recovers hy-8 drocarbons—is legitimate recycling exempt 9 from the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 10 6901 et seq.), analogous to substantial partial 11 reclamation of spent petroleum catalyst. 12 (B) Units that recover vanadium and other 13 metals and critical minerals from spent petro-14 leum catalyst are analogous to smelting, melt-15 ing, and refining furnaces, which are condi-16 tionally exempt from the Boilers and Industrial 17 Furnaces (referred to in this section as ‘‘BIF’’) 18 requirements under the Solid Waste Disposal 19 Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.) because they re-20 cover valuable materials. 21 (C) Units that recover vanadium and other 22 metals and critical minerals from spent petro-23 leum catalyst process hazardous waste solely for 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:11 Feb 17, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3879.IS S3879kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 5 •S 3879 IS materials recovery as opposed to destruction or 1 energy recovery. 2 (D) Units that recover vanadium and other 3 metals and critical minerals from spent petro-4 leum catalyst, which recycle spent petroleum 5 catalyst (which is a commodity), should be ex-6 empt under the Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 7 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.) to promote the recovery of 8 valuable materials. 9 (E) Units that recover vanadium and other 10 metals and critical minerals from spent petro-11 leum catalyst are already equipped with pollu-12 tion controls comparable to those required 13 under BIF and further regulation may be un-14 necessary. 15 (5) Permits under title V of the Clean Air Act 16 (42 U.S.C. 7661 et seq.) and other air permits and 17 regulations already enforce robust environmental 18 safeguards, making the application of the Solid 19 Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.) BIF 20 requirements to units that recover vanadium and 21 other metals and critical minerals from spent petro-22 leum catalyst duplicative and unnecessary. 23 (6) Clarifying the regulations pursuant to sec-24 tion 3 will encourage environmentally safe domestic 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:11 Feb 17, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3879.IS S3879kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 6 •S 3879 IS recovery of metals and critical minerals, including 1 vanadium, from spent petroleum catalyst to ensure 2 access to an affordable, resilient, and sustainable 3 supply of processed critical minerals for United 4 States industry while avoiding unnecessary regu-5 latory burdens, as the Environmental Protection 6 Agency proposed in the notice described in para-7 graph (4). 8 SEC. 3. REGULATIONS. 9 (a) I N GENERAL.—As soon as practicable after the 10 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 11 Environmental Protection Agency shall promulgate a final 12 rule to revise the regulations under subtitle C of the Solid 13 Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6921 et seq.) as follows: 14 (1) Revise subsections (c) and (d) of section 15 266.100 of title 40, Code of Federal Regulations, to 16 expressly provide that units reclaiming valuable met-17 als, including critical minerals (such as vanadium), 18 from spent hydrotreating catalyst (EPA Hazardous 19 Waste No. K171) and spent hydrorefining catalyst 20 (EPA Hazardous Waste No. K172) from petroleum 21 refining operations are exempt from the Boilers and 22 Industrial Furnaces requirements under the Solid 23 Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. 6901 et seq.). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:11 Feb 17, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3879.IS S3879kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 7 •S 3879 IS (2) Clarify that the exemption described in 1 paragraph (1) applies to— 2 (A) thermal treatment units, including 3 roasters, that process the spent petroleum cata-4 lyst into an intermediate product suitable for 5 metals reclamation; and 6 (B) metallurgical units, including furnaces 7 and hydrometallurgical units, that reclaim met-8 als from spent petroleum catalyst and inter-9 mediate products. 10 (3) Clarify that the transfer-based exclusion 11 under section 261.4(a)(24) of title 40, Code of Fed-12 eral Regulations, can be used when spent petroleum 13 catalyst is sent to a third party for metals reclama-14 tion. 15 (b) IMPLEMENTATION.— 16 (1) I MMEDIATE EFFECTIVENESS .—Notwith-17 standing any other provision of law, the final rule 18 promulgated under subsection (a) shall take effect 19 on the date on which the final rule is published in 20 the Federal Register. 21 (2) E XEMPTION.—The rulemaking required 22 under subsection (a) shall be carried out without re-23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:11 Feb 17, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3879.IS S3879kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 8 •S 3879 IS gard to the notice and comment requirements under 1 section 553 of title 5, United States Code. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 19:11 Feb 17, 2026 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3879.IS S3879kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB