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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the previous year, however decreased to recognize the companies targeted because the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been mounting that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

The issue came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created energetic standards to validate, not just 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, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to omit 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)