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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 renewable fuel producers amidst industry issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.

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

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been mounting that some materials identified as used cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to logging and other .

The issue entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

“EPA has performed audits of renewable fuel producers because July 2023 which includes, to name a few things, an evaluation of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered,” he stated. “These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations.”

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

“The Biden administration has produced vigorous requirements to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the exact same scrutiny is used 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 urged the administration to omit 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)