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

Ludie Raine edited this page 5 months ago

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the companies targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some materials identified as used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The issue came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the exact same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to leave out imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)