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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel producers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has released audits over the past year, but decreased to recognize the companies targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some supplies labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The problem entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers because July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised 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)