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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of at least 2 eco-friendly fuel producers in the middle of industry issues that some may be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government subsidies.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the past year, but decreased to identify the companies targeted since the examinations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can earn refiners a multitude of state and federal ecological and climate aids, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been installing that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are actually less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, a product that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The problem entered into focus following a surge in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that analysts have stated 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 fraud issues.

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

"EPA has actually performed audits of renewable fuel producers considering that July 2023 that includes, amongst other things, an evaluation of the places that used cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he said. "These investigations, nevertheless, are continuous and we are not able to talk about ongoing enforcement examinations."

U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal agencies ought to be as extensive in verifying 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 same scrutiny is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, composed in a June 20 letter to federal firms.

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