US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' used Cooking Oil Supply
By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel producers in the middle of market concerns that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding federal government aids.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the past year, but decreased to identify the business targeted since the investigations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew 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 fears have been mounting that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.
The problem entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.
The EPA audits started after the domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies ought to be as rigorous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has produced vigorous requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised 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)