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

Franziska Weiland edited this page 2025-01-13 02:35:56 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel producers amid industry concerns that some might be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the past year, however decreased to determine the companies targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered focus following a rise in utilized 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 utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an assessment of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies should be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," 6 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 advised 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 in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)