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

Elijah Lunn edited this page 2025-01-13 03:22:39 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government subsidies.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other .

The issue entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing 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, saying federal agencies should be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to validate, not just trust, American producers, and it is important that the very 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 federal firms.

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