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

Bernard Camarillo edited this page 2025-01-12 15:08:44 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released examinations into the supply chains of at least two renewable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government subsidies.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been mounting that some products labeled as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 which includes, among other things, an assessment of the areas that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal companies must be as extensive in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the 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 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)