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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel producers amidst market issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the past year, but decreased to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, 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 identified as utilized cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The issue entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity 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 company updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to validate, not just trust, American producers, and it is important that the very same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six 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 leave out 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)