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

Venus Olivarez edited this page 2025-01-18 11:53:41 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers amidst industry issues that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has released audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

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

The issue entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers since July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the areas that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the exact same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 prompted the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)