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

Angelo Preiss edited this page 2025-01-12 08:24:12 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel producers in the middle of industry concerns that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has released audits over the previous year, however decreased to identify the companies targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and environment aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue entered focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers looking for to make under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually performed audits of sustainable fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced vigorous requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

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