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

Tera Bagley edited this page 2025-01-18 02:32:42 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market concerns that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the past year, however declined to identify the business targeted since the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. 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 renewable fuel manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies must be as extensive in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually produced vigorous standards to validate, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the exact same analysis 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)