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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually launched audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the business targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

„EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected,” he said. „These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations.”

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms need to be as extensive in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

„The Biden administration has created energetic standards to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the same examination is used to imported feedstocks,” 6 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 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)