EPA rejects GAO’s calls on RFS refinery waivers, intensifying battle

Source: By Inside EPA • Posted: Sunday, November 6, 2022

EPA is rejecting calls from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to revise its policy declining all requests from small refiners for renewable fuel standard (RFS) compliance waivers, saying GAO’s analysis is “fundamentally flawed” and indicating it will maintain its current policy that is strongly opposed by refiners and their allies in Congress.

GAO in a Nov. 3 report finds that EPA cannot justify its central contention that small refiners “pass through” their RFS compliance costs to customers and are hence unharmed by the program. But in an Oct. 13 letter responding to an earlier draft of the report, EPA air office chief Joe Goffman rejects the findings. “EPA has fundamental objections to and very significant concerns with several of the statements in the Draft Report that we believe are not accurate and not supported by the record or by GAO’s draft analysis,” he writes.

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