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

Mercedes Mccarter edited this page 2025-01-16 22:06:58 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel producers in the middle of industry issues that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually launched audits over the past year, but declined to determine the business targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the areas that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is important that the very same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," 6 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 advised the administration to exclude 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)