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

Antony Burdine edited this page 2025-01-14 00:49:54 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of market concerns that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has launched audits over the past year, however declined to identify the companies targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

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

The concern came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity 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 company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually performed audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies need to be as strenuous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the very same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to leave out 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)