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

jillianstreet edited this page 2025-01-12 09:24:29 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually released investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two sustainable fuel producers amidst industry concerns that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA spokesperson Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the firm has released audits over the past year, but decreased to identify the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate aids, including tradable under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are in fact less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with logging and other environmental damage.

The issue entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have said involves unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams issues.

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

"EPA has actually conducted audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the areas that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to discuss ongoing enforcement investigations."

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

"The Biden administration has created vigorous requirements to validate, not simply trust, American producers, and it is essential that the very same scrutiny is used to imported feedstocks," six U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal companies.

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