Senator Duckworth seeks independent investigation into EPA’s hardship waiver process

In Washington, U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) to launch an independent investigation into whether top EPA officials violated the law by inappropriately exempting a number of oil refineries from having to use legally required levels of biofuel. A recent report from Reuters exposed how top EPA officials, including former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, lied to Congress and the American public about why they started granting a large number of waivers to oil refineries, which drove down prices of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINS) to multi-year lows.