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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Epa has actually launched examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two eco-friendly fuel producers amidst industry issues that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the previous year, however to identify the companies targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.

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

The EPA audits began after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

«EPA has performed audits of eco-friendly fuel producers since July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered,» he said. «These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations.»

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

«The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the exact 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 clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)