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

Brittany Boxall edited this page 2025-01-11 20:47:11 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers amidst industry issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually over the past year, but declined to recognize the companies targeted because the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal environmental 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 labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial 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 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)