On August 18, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report detailing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)'s failure to adequately evaluate the environmental impacts of biofuels. Quantifying these impacts is especially crucial as Congress assesses the success of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), which requires an increasing percentage of renewable fuels to be blended in the fuel supply.
The OIG review, announced in October 2015, addresses two areas pertaining to the RFS: 1) EPA's lack of compliance with reporting requirements of the law, and 2) EPA's failure to update its lifecycle analysis for biofuels. EPA is supposed to provide updated reports to Congress on the impact of RFS every three years, but hasn't provided one since 2011. Additionally, EPA failed to complete the "Anti-Backsliding Analysis" to ensure that air quality is not worsened by the RFS. EPA has not updated its lifecycle analysis on the environmental effect of the RFS-while not legally required, it is something that EPA committed to do as updated science becomes available.
Click here to see more...