1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply

Nona Scutt edited this page 2025-01-13 08:53:32 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel producers amid market concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the companies targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The concern entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the .

The EPA audits started after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an evaluation of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the very same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to exclude 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 Matthew Lewis)