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

Dewayne Sissons edited this page 2025-01-11 21:22:01 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the previous year, however decreased to recognize the business targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude 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 been mounting that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are actually less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits started after the company upgraded 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 eco-friendly fuel producers since July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies ought to be as strenuous in as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is vital that the very same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 advised 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)