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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually released examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers amidst industry issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government subsidies.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials identified as used cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The concern came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts 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 scams concerns.

The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the exact same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to exclude 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)