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

yvonnerosson0 edited this page 2025-01-12 06:37:59 +01:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two sustainable fuel producers in the middle of market concerns that some may be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually released audits over the previous year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted since 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 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 products labeled as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel producers since July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually created energetic requirements to validate, not just trust, American producers, and it is vital that the exact same examination is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. ( by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)