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

Alyce Escobedo edited this page 2025-01-12 16:49:06 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

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

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has introduced audits over the previous year, however declined to recognize the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are really cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise 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 used and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, among other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created vigorous standards to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 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)