US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply
By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has introduced examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of 2 eco-friendly fuel manufacturers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to protect profitable government aids.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the company has actually introduced audits over the past year, however declined to determine the business targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable components, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a variety 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 logging and other ecological damage.
The concern came into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that experts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the fraud concerns.
The EPA audits began after the firm updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers because July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the places that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These examinations, nevertheless, are continuous 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 companies ought to be as extensive in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has created energetic standards to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is crucial that the same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," six 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 leave out imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional clean fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)