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

Eartha Folk edited this page 2025-01-12 20:29:50 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Agency has released investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel producers amidst industry issues that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has actually released audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

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

The problem entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies need to be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually created energetic requirements to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the exact 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 companies.

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