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

Fredericka Isenberg edited this page 2025-01-12 03:08:35 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel producers amidst industry issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has released audits over the past year, however decreased to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some products identified as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The concern came into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel producers considering that July 2023 which consists of, to name a few things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies ought to be as extensive in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic standards to verify, 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 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)