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

Carmella Albiston edited this page 2025-01-13 08:16:28 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Agency has released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel producers amid industry concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually released audits over the past year, but declined to determine the business targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some products labeled as used cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated 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 renewable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has performed audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the places that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms need to be as strenuous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually developed energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is vital that the same examination 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 advised the administration to exclude 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)