US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply
By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amidst industry concerns that some may be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding government subsidies.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has actually released audits over the past year, however declined to determine the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with deforestation and other ecological damage.
The concern entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually stated includes 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 issues.
The EPA audits started after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal companies need to be as strenuous in verifying imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has produced energetic requirements to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is crucial that the same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, in a June 20 letter to federal companies.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to leave out 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)