IG Scrutiny Of EPA RFS Highlights Fight Over Program's Lifecycle Benefits

摘要

EPA's Inspector General (IG) is launching an evaluation of whether EPA properly incorporated studies on the lifecycle greenhouse gases (GHG) of fuels blended into the gasoline supply as part of its renewable fuel standard (RFS), highlighting an intensifying debate over the program's lifecycle impacts on climate, land and water. The fight over whether the RFS is achieving its goals of promoting fuels with lower GHGs than conventional gasoline, and whether its impacts on land use and water quality are acceptable, is growing ahead of EPA's issuance of a final multi-year RFS for 2014 through 2016. The agency is under a Nov. 30 consent decree deadline to release a final version of its June proposal that has drawn attacks from the oil and renewable fuel sectors.