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

Edwin Colmenero edited this page 2025-01-13 02:34:46 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has launched audits over the previous year, but declined to identify the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

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

The problem entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has actually performed audits of renewable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the areas that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is essential that the same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

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