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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel manufacturers amid industry issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, but declined to recognize the business targeted because the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other environmental damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an evaluation of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is essential that the exact same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged 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)