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 released examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry concerns that some might be using deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to protect lucrative government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has actually introduced audits over the past year, but declined to identify the business targeted because the investigations are .

The production of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, including 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 used cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The issue entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that analysts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the fraud issues.

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

"EPA has conducted audits of renewable fuel producers because July 2023 which consists of, among other things, an examination of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement examinations."

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

"The Biden administration has developed energetic standards to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is imperative that the exact same analysis is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote 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 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)