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

Dolly Fisk edited this page 2025-01-18 00:10:59 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, but declined to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some supplies labeled as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits began after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an evaluation of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous requirements to validate, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the exact same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to .

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)