March 10, 2022
BY Erin Krueger
The U.S. EPA on March 10 issued a notice to all obligated parties under the Renewable Fuel Standard that the agency will disclose certain confidential business information (CBI) related to small refinery exemption (SRE) petitions to the U.S. Government Accountability Office on March 28.
According to the notice, the action impacts obligated parties that have petitioned for SREs or that have submitted certain RFS compliance reports, including RFS2500 Efficient Producer Data Report, RFS0303 Annual Report, RFS0104 RFS Activity Report, and RFS0105 RFS Activity Report.
Advertisement
Advertisement
In response to a request from the GAO, the EPA said will disclose information to the GAO that has been submitted to the agency that is claimed to be, or has been determined to be, CBI. The information to be disclosed includes all documents, information and data related to SRE petitions received by the EPA since May 21, 2021, through Dec. 31, 2023, and all information in the aforementioned RFS compliance reports.
The EPA said these records include, but are not limited to, all materials submitted by the small refineries as part of their petitions; any documentation sent by the U.S. Department of Energy to EPA stating DOE's findings and scores associated with the petitions and any EPA responses thereto; any EPA record addressing the subject of the exemption petitions, including any analysis that EPA conducted in addition to DOE's findings; and EPA's final exemption decisions sent to the refineries.
Advertisement
Advertisement
All CBI-claimed documents will be destroyed, deleted, or returned to EPA at the conclusion of GAO's review.
A full copy of the notice can be downloaded from the Federal Register website.