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 released examinations into the supply chains of a minimum of two renewable fuel manufacturers amidst market concerns that some may be using deceitful feedstocks for biodiesel to secure profitable federal government subsidies.
EPA representative Jeffrey Landis informed Reuters that the company has introduced audits over the previous year, but declined to recognize the companies targeted due to the fact that the examinations are ongoing.
The production of biodiesel from sustainable active ingredients, like used cooking oil, can make refiners a variety of state and federal ecological and climate subsidies, credits under a program administered by the EPA called the Renewable Fuel Standard. But worries have been mounting that some materials identified as utilized cooking oil are actually cheaper and less sustainable virgin palm oil, an item that is associated with deforestation and other environmental damage.
The issue entered focus following a rise in utilized cooking oil exports from Asia over the last few years that analysts have actually stated includes unrealistically high volumes relative to the amount of cooking oil used and recovered in the region. The European Union is also investigating feedstocks over the scams concerns.
The EPA audits started after the company upgraded domestic supply-chain accounting requirements in July 2023 for eco-friendly fuel producers seeking to make credits under the RFS, he said.
"EPA has actually performed audits of renewable fuel producers considering that July 2023 which consists of, amongst other things, an evaluation of the areas that utilized cooking oil used in sustainable fuel production was gathered," he stated. "These investigations, however, are continuous and we are unable to go over ongoing enforcement investigations."
U.S. senators from farm states have actually called for more oversight of biofuel feedstocks, stating federal firms must be as strenuous in confirming imports as they are auditing domestic supply chains.
"The Biden administration has actually produced energetic requirements to verify, not simply trust, American manufacturers, and it is necessary that the exact same analysis is applied to imported feedstocks," 6 U.S. senators, led by Roger Marshall and Sherrod Brown, wrote in a June 20 letter to federal agencies.
Another letter from 15 senators to the Treasury Department on July 30 advised 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 Leah Douglas in Washington Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Matthew Lewis)
