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

Kaylene Kroemer edited this page 2 weeks ago

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, but declined to identify the companies targeted since the examinations 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 aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The concern entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil from Asia in recent years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous requirements to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the very same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," six 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 prompted the administration to omit 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)