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

reynanock6481 edited this page 2025-01-12 03:36:13 -06:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel producers amid industry issues that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has launched audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some materials identified as used cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.

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

The EPA audits began after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually performed audits of sustainable fuel producers since July 2023 which includes, among other things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is vital that the same examination is used 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 urged 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)