The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week published a notice in the Federal Register that they are turning over information to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the Renewable Fuel Standard, including data that could be considered confidential business information (CBI) relative to small refinery exemptions (SREs).
EPA said they will disclose to GAO "all documents, information, and data related to all small refinery exemption petitions received by EPA from the start of the RFS program through the present."
EPA said GAO will either return the information to EPA or destroy it when their study is done, and they noted there are rules preventing "any further disclosure" of such information.
That suggests GAO is embarking on a major exam of the RFS and SREs in particular, most likely coming at the request of a lawmaker or lawmakers. It is not clear when the study will be completed, but this could be a key report on what has been a dicey subject in the biofuels arena.