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

Christopher Chittenden edited this page 1 week ago

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted because the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some materials labeled as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern 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 to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous requirements to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the exact same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to omit 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)