US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Secondhand Cooking Oil Supply
By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel producers amid industry concerns that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to federal government subsidies.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the past year, but decreased to identify the business targeted since 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 fears have been mounting that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other environmental damage.
The concern entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.
The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel producers considering that July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies must be as strenuous in verifying 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 essential that the very 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 agencies.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)