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

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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 manufacturers in the middle of market issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the previous year, but decreased to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn 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 fears have actually been installing that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other .

The problem entered into focus following a rise in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

The EPA audits began after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers looking for to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to validate, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the very same analysis is used 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 advised the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)