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

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By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually launched investigations into the supply chains of at least two eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry issues that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the past year, but declined to determine the companies targeted since the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have been installing that some materials labeled as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is related to deforestation and other ecological damage.

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

The EPA audits started after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel producers because July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an assessment of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are unable to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous requirements to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 prompted the administration to exclude imported feedstocks like UCO from an extra clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)