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

Lea Waldon edited this page 2025-01-11 10:33:00 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel producers amidst market issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to recognize the companies targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, 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 really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

The EPA audits began after the upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms must be as strenuous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the very same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)