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

ralfblohm8260 edited this page 2025-01-18 20:57:15 +08:00

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least two sustainable fuel producers amidst market issues that some might be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually launched audits over the previous year, but declined to determine the business targeted because the investigations are ongoing.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew of state and federal environmental and aids, including tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have actually been installing that some products labeled as utilized cooking oil are actually less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with deforestation and other ecological damage.

The issue entered focus following a surge 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 area. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

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

"EPA has carried out audits of renewable fuel manufacturers considering that July 2023 which includes, among other things, an evaluation of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in sustainable fuel production was collected," he said. "These examinations, however, are continuous and we are not able to go over ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have required more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms must be as rigorous in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.

"The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to confirm, not just trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the exact same examination 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 advised 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)