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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel producers in the middle of market issues that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has introduced audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety 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 actually been installing that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is associated with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The problem came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized 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 sustainable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has performed audits of eco-friendly fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has created energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the exact same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to leave out 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)