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

Tarah Arnett edited this page 2025-01-18 02:28:33 +00:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel producers amid market issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has launched audits over the previous year, but decreased to determine the business targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some materials labeled as used cooking oil are in fact cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with and other ecological damage.

The concern came into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the exact same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote 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 clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)