The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) apparently ran out of fuel: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not issued a report on the RFS in five years. Even more concerning: The EPA seemingly does not care about ethanol’s impact on the environment.

According to Reuters,

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not complied with federal requirements to study the effects of the nation's biofuel use mandate, an agency watchdog said on Thursday.

EPA's Inspector General concluded that the agency has not issued a report to Congress on the environmental impacts of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) since 2011, even though federal law requires that the agency provide a report every three years.

The RFS, which is administered by EPA, sets the amounts of biofuels, such as ethanol, that must be blended into U.S. gasoline and diesel supplies annually.

The IG report also said the agency has not evaluated whether the program is causing any harm to air quality and it has no formal process to initiate an update of its data on the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels.

To be clear, the RFS is a crony giveaway to corn farmers. Evidence that ethanol is counterproductive to the environment is plentiful. Plus, it is potentially damaging to older engines in a wide range of vehicles and appliances. Overall, its purported benefits are vastly overstated and its costs underreported.

The legally mandated RFS is supposed to examine those issues. However, it has been ignored by the EPA. Why?

The RFS needs not only EPA "fuel" to produce a report but also sunshine. All publicly created policies should be in full, transparent view of the public and be required to followed their legislatively created paths—even if that means the EPA must get out and push.