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

Romaine Annunziata edited this page 2025-01-27 02:39:37 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel producers amid market issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually launched audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the companies targeted because the examinations are continuous.

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

The concern entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits began after the agency supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required 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 created energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, 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 urged 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)