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

Rashad Hand edited this page 2025-01-18 09:46:41 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers amidst market issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has released audits over the previous year, however declined to recognize the companies targeted since the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some supplies labeled as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The problem came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel producers because July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created energetic requirements to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is vital that the very same examination is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed 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 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)