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

Lucie Ventura edited this page 2025-01-10 23:39:29 -08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government aids.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have actually stated involves high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an evaluation of the locations that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the same scrutiny 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 advised the administration to leave out 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)