1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply

Adeline Shirk edited this page 2025-01-11 15:07:46 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the past year, however declined to identify the business targeted since the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn 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 actually been mounting that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The problem came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts 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 .

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created vigorous standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the very same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 prompted the administration to leave out imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)