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

Nadia Reeves edited this page 2025-01-22 18:39:52 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market concerns that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually released audits over the past year, however declined to recognize the business targeted because the investigations are .

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some products identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. 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 make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually performed audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced vigorous standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the very same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

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)