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

Caridad Simson edited this page 2025-01-13 17:41:33 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Agency has actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel producers amidst industry issues that some might be utilizing fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has launched audits over the past year, however decreased to recognize the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety 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 mounting that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are in fact more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other environmental damage.

The issue entered 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 quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 which includes, among other things, an evaluation of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic standards to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)