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

Lora Becerra edited this page 1 month ago

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market concerns that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government subsidies.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and and environment aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits began after the company upgraded 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 conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced energetic requirements to validate, not just trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," six 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 leave out 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)