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

Dorothy Demko edited this page 2025-01-11 23:29:36 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

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

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has launched audits over the past year, however decreased to recognize the companies targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety 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 have actually been installing that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are really cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.

The concern came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

The EPA audits started after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers considering that July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has created vigorous requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to omit 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)