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

Amee Ladd edited this page 2025-01-12 04:20:55 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the previous year, but decreased to determine the business targeted because the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The concern entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits started after the company updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually performed audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms should be as strenuous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has produced energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is essential that the exact same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted 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)