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

Nick Perivolaris edited this page 2025-01-18 22:28:26 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel producers in the middle of market issues that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the past year, however declined to identify the companies targeted since the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn a multitude of state and federal environmental 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 products labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise examining feedstocks over the scams issues.

The EPA audits started after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel manufacturers looking for to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has performed audits of sustainable fuel producers given that July 2023 which includes, among other things, an examination of the locations that used cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, however, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss ongoing enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to confirm, not simply trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 urged 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)