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

Kris Dimattia edited this page 2025-01-12 01:22:17 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have actually said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created vigorous standards to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the very 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 companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)