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

Gisele Dutton edited this page 2025-01-10 21:49:53 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid industry concerns that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the previous year, however decreased to recognize the companies targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew 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 been mounting that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the areas that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced vigorous requirements to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the very 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 firms.

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