US EPA Says it is Auditing Biofuel Producers' Pre-owned Cooking Oil Supply
By Leah Douglas
Aug 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Epa has actually introduced investigations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel producers amid market issues that some might be utilizing deceptive feedstocks for biodiesel to secure rewarding federal government subsidies.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the agency has actually launched audits over the previous year, however declined to determine the business targeted since the examinations are continuous.
The of biodiesel from sustainable ingredients, like utilized cooking oil, can earn refiners a slew 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 fears have actually been installing that some products identified as utilized cooking oil are really less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is related to logging and other ecological damage.
The issue entered into focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have actually said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recuperated in the region. The European Union is also examining feedstocks over the scams concerns.
The EPA audits began after the agency updated domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for renewable fuel manufacturers seeking to earn credits under the RFS, he stated.
"EPA has actually carried out audits of renewable fuel producers since July 2023 that includes, to name a few things, an assessment of the areas that utilized cooking oil utilized in eco-friendly fuel production was collected," he stated. "These investigations, however, are ongoing and we are not able to go over continuous enforcement examinations."
U.S. senators from farm states have called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, saying federal agencies must be as extensive in validating imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually developed vigorous standards to validate, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is vital that the 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 firms.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised the administration to omit imported feedstocks like UCO from an additional tidy fuel tax credit program passed in the Inflation Reduction Act. (Reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)