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

Grant Mehler edited this page 2025-01-18 00:10:35 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

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

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has released audits over the past year, however declined to determine the companies targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety 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 fears have been mounting that some supplies labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.

The concern entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers because July 2023 which includes, among other things, an examination of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed vigorous requirements to validate, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the very same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

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