Fuels and Fuel Additives
Attest Engagements
The principle purpose of attest engagements is to provide regulated parties an independent review of their compliance with the fuels requirements, including a review of the regulated party's internal systems to monitor and document compliance. Attest engagements are intended to identify compliance problems to a company, so the company can implement early remedial actions and prevent the problem from continuing into future compliance periods and growing into larger violations. A secondary purpose of attest engagements is to identify companies with significant problems to EPA. Based on these reports, EPA may then decide to audit the company or may take an enforcement action based on the violations disclosed by the attest.
The requirements regarding annual attest engagements under the RFS1 program are found at 40 C.F.R. § 80.1164, and the requirements regarding annual attest engagements for the RFS2 program are found at 40 C.F.R. § 80.14641 (footnote) . For activity during 2010, RFS 1 and RFS 2 attest engagement requirements must be complied with separately. A single report can be submitted to EPA, provided the RFS 1 and RFS 2 obligations are clearly distinguished.
Attest Engagement Reports should clearly state the company and facility IDs of the submitting party on the front of each report, as well the submitting party's RFS activity (i.e, Obligated parties and exporters - §80.1464(a), Renewable fuel producers and RIN-generating importers - §80.1464(b), or Other parties owning RINs - §80.1464(c)).
Please note that 40 C.F.R. §80.1464 (b)(3)(ii) requires the attest auditor to report the total number of RINs generated each quarter, as well as other information regarding RIN activities.
Please select the attest engagement rules based on your Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) activities:
| RFS Activity | Attest Engagements Information for activity January 1, 2010 through June 30, 2010 | Attest Engagements Information for activity July 1, 2010 through December 31, 2010 | Attest Engagements Submission Dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Obligated Party (See § 80.1406 (a)) |
§80.1164 (a) | §80.1464(a) | May 31st of the year following the compliance year. §§80.1164(d)(1) and 80.1464(d) |
| Exporter of renewable fuel (See § 80.1430) |
|||
| RIN Generating Producer of renewable fuel | §80.1164(b) | §80.1464(b) | May 31st of the year following the compliance year. §§80.1164(d)(1) and 80.1464(d) |
| RIN-generating importers | |||
| None of the above, but your company has owned RINs in the previous year | §80.1164(c) | §80.1464 (c) |
General Attest Engagement Instructions:
In addition to the attest procedures set forth in the RFS regulations, the following general attest engagement regulations govern the required qualifications of the attest auditor, include applicable definitions, provide guidelines for sample sizes and set forth the reporting and record retention requirements for the attest auditors.
Sample size guidelines §80.127
Agreed upon procedures reports §80.130
| Mail completed and signed attest engagement to: | |
| US Mail: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency RFS Attest Engagement (6406J) 1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20460 |
Commercial Delivery: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency RFS Attest Engagement (6406J) Room 647C; 202-343-9038 1310 L Street, NW Washington, DC 20005 |
(footnote:) 1 The RFS regulations include additional attest engagement requirements for foreign small refiners and RIN generating foreign producers and importers. These requirements are found at 40 C.F.R. §§ 80.1165(m) and 80.1166(m) in the RFS 1 regulations, and 40 C.F.R. §§ 80.1465(m) and 80.1466(m) in the RFS2 regulations.
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