CREW sues EPA for 2014 RFS documents

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is suing the US Environment Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to provide documents relating to the oil industry's attempts to affect the outcome of the 2014 renewable fuel standard (RFS).

Last May, CREW asked for an investigation by the EPA's Office of Inspector General and filed a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain records after news spread that the Carlyle Group and Delta Airlines were looking to convince members of Congress and the administration to reduce the amount of renewable fuel required to be blended into transportation fuel. The EPA has not yet handed over these documents.

CREW is also worried that oil companies took advantage of political relationships to convince both the government and the EPA to place waivers into the RFS to potentially enable oil companies to refuse to sell biofuels.

'It certainly seems as if the administration has backtracked on its commitment to renewable fuels,' says Melanie Sloan, executive director, CREW. 'Is the EPA slow-walking its release of these documents because it does not want the public to learn how political the RFS has become? The RFS should be based on sound energy policy, not politics. CREW's lawsuit will shed light on what really went on at the EPA.'