1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' used Cooking Oil Supply

Elvera Snell edited this page 2025-01-11 23:17:21 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel producers amidst market issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually released audits over the previous year, but declined to determine the companies targeted since the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits started after the company updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal companies need to be as strenuous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous requirements to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Lewis)