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

Franchesca Bonilla edited this page 2025-01-17 00:25:55 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel manufacturers amidst industry issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the past year, however decreased to determine the since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some materials identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The concern entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the firm upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually performed audits of eco-friendly fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the areas that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the same analysis 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 exclude 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)