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 actually introduced examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers amid market concerns that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure lucrative federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the agency has launched audits over the past year, but decreased to determine the companies targeted because the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and climate subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But fears have actually been installing that some supplies identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue entered focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia recently that experts have actually said involves 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 concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of sustainable fuel producers considering that July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are unable to talk about continuous enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic standards to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is important that the exact 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 agencies.

Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to leave out 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)