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 launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel manufacturers amidst industry issues that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government aids.
EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the previous year, but declined to determine the business targeted because the investigations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.
The concern entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.
The EPA audits began after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which includes, amongst other things, an examination of the locations that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal firms need to be as extensive in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic requirements to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the very same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to leave out 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)