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

Cathern Caraballo edited this page 2025-01-12 07:41:28 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 renewable fuel manufacturers amid market issues that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has released audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the companies targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some supplies labeled as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The concern came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of eco-friendly fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an assessment of the locations that utilized cooking oil used in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

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 tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)