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

Melisa Littlefield edited this page 2025-01-18 07:15:14 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released investigations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually launched audits over the past year, however declined to determine the business targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials identified as used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to deforestation and other environmental damage.

The concern came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers since July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies ought to be as rigorous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the same scrutiny is applied 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 advised the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)