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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel producers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has launched audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and environment aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products labeled as used oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The problem entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the very same scrutiny 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 exclude 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)