US EPA Says It Is Auditing Biofuel Producers Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply

By Leah Douglas


Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding government aids.


EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to identify the business targeted since the investigations are ongoing.


The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been that some products labeled as used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other ecological damage.


The concern came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the area. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.


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


"EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."


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


"The Biden administration has developed vigorous standards to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the same examination is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 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 leave out 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)