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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of market concerns that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis that the firm has actually introduced audits over the previous year, however decreased to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The problem came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise 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 producers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the same examination is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

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