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

Brooke Grantham edited this page 2025-01-18 13:16:01 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has launched audits over the previous year, but declined to determine the companies targeted since the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The problem came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have said involves 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 issues.

The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has actually conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies ought to be as extensive in confirming 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 very 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 companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to leave out imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)