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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched examinations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some might be using fraudulent feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to recognize the companies targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety 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 mounting that some materials labeled as used cooking oil are actually more affordable and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in recent years that experts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has conducted audits of eco-friendly fuel manufacturers since July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an assessment of the places that utilized cooking oil used in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic standards to verify, not simply trust, American producers, and it is crucial that the very same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to exclude 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)