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

Elwood Teichelmann edited this page 2025-01-14 06:45:54 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers amid market concerns that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has actually introduced audits over the past year, however declined to recognize the business targeted because the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products labeled as used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that analysts have actually said 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 fraud concerns.

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

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an examination of the areas that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous standards to validate, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the very 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 firms.

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