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

Lanny Matthes edited this page 2025-01-18 04:34:55 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel producers in the middle of market concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the previous year, but decreased to the business targeted because the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude 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 been mounting that some supplies labeled as used cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits started after the company updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to talk about ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced vigorous standards to verify, not just trust, American producers, and it is necessary that the exact same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

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