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

Maribel McMaster edited this page 2025-01-13 06:39:05 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the has actually introduced audits over the past year, however decreased to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been mounting that some materials labeled as used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

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

The EPA audits began after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the very same examination 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 advised the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)