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

Chong Cranwell edited this page 2025-01-13 16:17:29 +02:00

By Leah Douglas

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

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually released audits over the previous year, however decreased to determine the business targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, 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 fears have actually been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The problem entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 which includes, among other things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies should be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous requirements 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 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 clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)