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

Joie Weinberg edited this page 2025-01-12 06:23:24 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has released audits over the previous year, but decreased to recognize the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products labeled as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have stated includes 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 scams issues.

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

"EPA has performed audits of eco-friendly fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created vigorous standards to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the exact same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

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