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 actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel producers amid market concerns that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has released audits over the past year, but declined to identify the business targeted due to the fact that the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal environmental and climate aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some materials identified as used cooking oil are really more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem came into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the area. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud concerns.

The EPA audits started after the company upgraded 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 eco-friendly fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an examination of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are ongoing and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies should be as extensive in as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to confirm, not just trust, American producers, and it is imperative that the exact 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 agencies.

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