1 US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply

Jorge Pantano edited this page 2025-01-11 04:27:39 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel producers amidst industry issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government subsidies.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the past year, however declined to recognize the companies targeted since the investigations are ongoing.

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

The problem entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in current years that experts have stated involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the .

The EPA audits started after the company updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers given that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the same scrutiny is applied 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 prompted 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)