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

By Leah Douglas

Aug 7 (Reuters) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actually released examinations into the supply chains of at least 2 sustainable fuel producers amidst market concerns that some might be utilizing deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure financially rewarding federal government aids.

EPA representative Jeffrey Landis told Reuters that the firm has released audits over the previous year, but declined to recognize the companies targeted since the investigations are continuous.

The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a slew of state and federal ecological and environment subsidies, consisting of tradable credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some supplies identified as used cooking oil are actually less expensive and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is connected with logging and other ecological damage.

The issue entered into focus following a surge in used cooking oil exports from Asia in the last few years that experts have said includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the quantity of cooking oil utilized and recovered in the region. The European Union is likewise investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.

The EPA audits started after the agency upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for sustainable fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he stated.

“EPA has conducted audits of sustainable fuel manufacturers since July 2023 that includes, among other things, an assessment of the locations that used cooking oil utilized in renewable fuel production was gathered,” he stated. “These examinations, however, are continuous and we are unable to discuss continuous enforcement investigations.”

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

“The Biden administration has produced energetic standards to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is essential that the exact same analysis is used 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 advised the administration to leave out 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)