1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply

Augustus Thomas edited this page 2025-01-12 08:04:03 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market concerns that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the past year, however decreased 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 make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some products identified as used cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other environmental damage.

The problem entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies ought to be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic .

"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous standards to validate, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the exact 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 companies.

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