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

Drusilla Martindale edited this page 2025-01-12 07:37:06 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry issues that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has released audits over the past year, however declined to determine the companies targeted because the investigations are continuous.

The of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude 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 actually been mounting that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are really 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 surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually performed audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an assessment of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies need to be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic requirements to confirm, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," 6 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 prompted the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)