1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply

Melisa Littlefield edited this page 2025-01-12 00:03:43 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel producers amidst industry issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other environmental damage.

The concern entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an evaluation of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous requirements to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the exact same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 prompted the administration to 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)