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

Ashli Pedder edited this page 2025-01-11 23:50:14 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel manufacturers amid industry concerns that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, however declined to identify the business targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and environment aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials labeled as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is essential that the very same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to exclude imported 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)