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

Yvonne Ordonez edited this page 2 weeks ago

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 sustainable fuel producers amid market issues that some may be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has actually launched audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety 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 worries have been installing that some as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive 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 used cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount 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 firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel producers because July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an examination of the places that used cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, 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 agencies should be as extensive in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has developed energetic requirements to verify, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the exact same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," six 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 prompted the administration to leave out 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)